Danish Maritime Forum, which is considered as the “Davos of the maritime industry” has been renamed as ‘Global Maritime Forum’, becoming a new global platform to better contribute to a positive long term change for the industry and for society. Fourteen global and prominent industry leaders are backing the Forum which aims to serve as a broader platform for dialogue and collaboration to increase sustainable long term economic development and human wellbeing.
Fourteen global leaders are behind its foundation including: A.P. Moeller-Mærsk, Arshiya International, Euronav, GasLog, Gorrissen Federspiel, Gulf Agency Company, Heidrick & Struggles, Hempel, KfW IPEX-Bank, MISC, Onassis Foundation, PSA International, Trafigura, and Wan Hai Lines.
Exploring the forces of disruption will top the agenda of the new Global Maritime Forum succeeding progress made during the last Danish Maritime Forum (October 2016). In particular, the Forum will discuss initiatives to positively impact the global maritime industry in the medium to long term, i.e. decarbonization, digitalization and the rise of protectionism in the global trade. The Forum intends to present the first results of these initiatives at the inaugural summit in October 2018.
The Chairman of Global Maritime Forum, Peter Stokes announced the launch of the platform highlighting that it will not work as a new industry association, but rather as ‘a community of leaders with the breadth and quality of engagement to represent with authority the views and interests of the entire maritime spectrum’
”As a fragmented and siloed industry in an otherwise interconnected world the maritime industry needs a shared platform to tackle collective challenges. ” said Paddy Rodgers, CEO of Euronav.
”The Global Maritime Forum will provide new perspectives from inside and outside the industry to better understand the long term forces shaping our decision-making,” added Peter G. Livanos, Chairman of GasLog LTD.
Initiatives
#1 Decarbonizing seaborne transportation
The Forum is working together with Carbon War Room, University College London (UCL) and the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition to build a global coalition of private and public stakeholders around the pillars necessary to achieve successful decarbonization and to bring forward a plan to decarbonize seaborne transport that could be presented to the industry for adoption. A first workshop to set the agenda for this work in 2017-18 was held in London on 23 June 2017 (with the generous support from the European Climate Foundation). Topics to be covered include: industry leadership, technology, finance, carbon pricing and transparency.
#2 Digital disruption
The aim of this initiative is to generate insights into how emerging digital technologies are transforming the global maritime industry as well as the impact of these disruptive forces on the global economy, the international trading system and on the wider society. The goal is to assist key stakeholders in the maritime industry in exploring possible responses and in uncovering opportunities for collaborative action to successfully transition to the digital economy.
#3 The rise of protectionism
The Forum is planning a research project to look at changing seaborne trade flows against the backdrop of the threat of a retreat from globalization. The purpose is to understand how the maritime industry – either alone or in collaboration with other industries and stakeholders – could contribute to mitigating the downsides of globalization and to building support for global trade and broad-based, inclusive growth and progress.
Further details may be found at www.globalmaritimeforum.org.
