Belgian shipping reiterates how crucial it is for the MEPC 77 to deliver concrete proposals for action to achieve decarbonization.
Namely, during a webinar on alternative fuels in support of Belgian candidacy to IMO Council, the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the North Sea, Vincent Van Quickborne, noted that:
World trade needs international regulations to make sure the necessary fuels are available. A lot of preconditions will need to be fulfilled outside of the shipping sector. The time to act is now. Together we can shape the future of shipping
What is more, Belgian shipowners are fully supportive of the strengthening of the IMO’s Initial GHG strategy adopted in 2018, which is at the heart of the discussion at this week’s MEPC. Commenting on the issue, Vincent Durot, Managing Director, Boeckmans, said that “climate change is a global challenge that will impact our industry heavily in the coming years.”
In addition, Wilfried Lemmens, Managing Director, RBSA, stated that:
The reason why it is so difficult to decarbonise a global sector like shipping is because the problem lies both downstream and upstream. New technologies are being developed rapidly, but they need to be scaled up
He also explained that much of the issues lay outside shipping itself, such as the transparency of fuel supply chains and the building of new infrastructures to supply the new fuels.
Moreover, the Belgian shipowners believe that alternative fuels and power systems need to be incentivised and scaled up.
For the next ten years, we do believe that dual fuel is the only possibility for clean shipping. The alternative of fuel cells has not reached market maturity and they are still too costly to be economical
highlighted Alexander Saverys, CEO, CMB.
Now, Hugo De Stoop, CEO of Euronav made very concrete proposals for actions which can already be taken:
- We have to stop wasting fuels (and therefore GHG emissions) now;
- Operators and service providers must co-operate to avoid speeding up to congested ports;
- Ships must slow down whenever the market is in oversupply (emissions are exponentially linked to speed);
- Choose better and more efficient routing through technology and sharing of information;
- A worldwide shipping carbon levy is the only way to make a level-playing field between zero emissions fuels and conventional fuel oil.