Christiana Prekezes, Executive Coordinator, HELMEPA responded to GREEN4SEA questions by disclosing initiatives that the Association has in store for 2017 with the aim to promote further stakeholders’ awareness for a sustainable marine environment.
GREEN4SEA: Do you think there was a significant success and/or progress made with respect to marine environment protection during 2016? Focusing on your area of expertise, what were the most important industry developments within 2016?
Christiana Prekezes: Undoubtedly, a milestone was the Paris Climate Change Agreement that entered into force on 4 November, just one year after its adoption in 2015. It is noteworthy not only because 195 countries accepted to cooperate and pool their nationally determined contributions but because shipping was left out to set its own roadmap towards the common goal. In this way, the international community acknowledged the significant role of IMO to regulate shipping. At the last MEPC session in October, IMO rose to the challenge by, among other, adopting the stricter Sulphur limit in fuel to be reached by 2020.
G4S: Focusing on your area of expertise, what do you think that it will be the biggest marine environmental challenge(s) for the industry for the 2017?
C.P.: Among the first challenges to come to mind is the implementation of the BWM Convention as the investments required on the part of the operators are considerable while the situation with the technologies available for the treatment of ballast water is not a clear one to allow for serious commitments to be made.
I could say that at today’s unstable global environment, the challenge, in general, is for the operator to continue being dedicated to comply with all statutory requirements while investing in the proper training and motivation of its officers and crews. The significance of the human factor should not be lost among the varied technological developments; these actually make it even more crucial for the mariners to be adequately prepared to ensure that all ships’ systems operate safely and efficiently.
G4S: What would be the 2017 resolutions for your company/ organization? What are your goals and aspirations to enhance environmental excellence? Do you have any new projects on the pipeline and/or plans for 2017 that you would like to share?
C.P.: HELMEPA’s main target is to assist its Volunteer Members – Companies, Vessels and Seafarers, to operate beyond compliance, in a proactive manner, honouring their own voluntary commitment.
So our main aim will be to execute successfully the Refresher Training Program of 2017, developed with the guidance of our Training Committee and with the support of 12 Member Companies and Classification Societies who provide expert instructors together with the Hellenic Coast Guard and the National Technical University.
In 2017, we will be also offering three Simulator courses at our Full Mission Bridge Simulator, among them the Bridge Resource Management Course – BRM which is approved by the Maritime Administration of Cyprus.
Furthermore, new e-Learning courses on safety and pollution prevention subjects will be made available in January.
In the field of environmental education of schoolchildren, we aim at further empowering the kids to engage in activities for the protection of our seas, beaches and nature in general. Besides the record number of 7,500 students all over Greece that we enrol in HELMEPA Junior this school year, we are enhancing the ability of teachers to properly educate and motivate the younger generation through the Network of Marine Teachers that we operate. Finally, 2017 will see the conclusion of a 3-year project financed by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation that under the title “Educational Community and Public Awareness Campaign on the Marine Environment, Shipping and Sciences” gave, among other, the chance to thousands of kids in 14 cities and islands in Greece to get acquainted with these themes and become interested in possibly pursuing related careers. Our aim next year is having a new program sponsored so that we build on the very positive results we had so far.
G4S: What is your overall forecast for the marine environmental developments in 2017 and what would you like to share and/or wish and/or ask other industry stakeholders?
C.P.: I believe that society will continue to demand from the shipping industry to reduce its environmental footprint. Irrespective of any ambiguity on the climate change issue and the fact that maritime transport is responsible for a very small percentage of air emissions in the atmosphere, the spotlights have once more turned on shipping and it will be watched closely for its dedication to contributing to the common goals.
Awareness, education and motivation on all levels of the industry will be indispensable to accelerate the collective effort and to this end, I wish for further synergies among the industry stakeholders. As for HELMEPA, we will continue to enhance our cooperation with all those interested in and concerned about the future; a future which inevitably has to promote investment and innovation towards a climate-friendly and environment-friendly economy.
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and not necessarily those of GREEN4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
