First Sustainable Ocean Summit
BIMCO attended the first Sustainable Ocean Summit (SOS), which took place in Belfast between 15 and 17 June. The idea of the SOS was to create an international, ocean sustainability conference for all sectors of the shipping industry. With the theme of Reducing Risk, Increasing Sustainability: Solutions through Collaboration, the SOS brought together a wide range of industries that use marine space and resources. From mainly Europe and the American continent, the following industries were represented: Shipping, oil and gas, fisheries, sea aquaculture, ports, mining, renewable offshore energy, dredging, marine technology and others.
SOS was arranged by the World Ocean Council (WOC), which describes itself as a business leadership alliance on ocean sustainability and stewardship. The members of WOC include: ExxonMobil, Rio Tinto, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), RightShip, the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), Twin Dolphins, Transocean, the Ocean Education, Technology and Science Partnership, Golder Associates, TORM and Nautilus Minerals.
The conference kicked off with a so-called Roundtable of Ocean Industry Association Leaders an opening plenary discussion forum that considered ocean policy developments and sustainability challenges affecting the future of responsible commercial activities in the seas. BIMCO had been invited to participate in the opening discussion. In line with ICS and INTERTANKO, BIMCO pointed at a possibility of cross-sector co-operation that might help to solve some of the problems the shipping industry face – for example lack of port reception facilities. BIMCO furthermore stressed that supply chain management was a possible subject that needed to be addressed in order to improve the transport chain thus avoiding port congestion in the future.
The remaining part of the summit was divided into themed sessions that addressed a large variety of issues: Priorities for cross-sector ocean industry action, including offshore renewable energy interaction with other industries; the Arctic Ocean; climate change and ocean science; bio security and invasive species; fisheries and aquaculture interaction with other industries; the role of finance, insurance and legal sectors in sustainability; sustainable ports; sound and ship strike impacts on marine mammals; marine debris; decommissioning ships and structures.
BIMCO co-chaired a session on Bio Security and Invasive Species. At this session, IMO made a presentation on Global Ballast Water Management which was followed by a presentation by Wallenius Wihelmsen Logistics explaining the ship owners experience with ballast water. Furthermore, an overview of New Zealand and Australian biofouling requirements was presented. A supplementing presentation was made by a representative from the dredging company Jan De Nul.
The résumés and/or conclusions from each of the 16 sessions were delivered to the secretariat of WOC in order to be used to define the future role of WOC. In the words of the founder of WOC, Mr. Paul Holthus, the WOC would now show commitment to the conclusions of the sessions in order to create solutions for ocean co-operate responsibility.
Source: BIMCO