The international Maritime Organization (IMO) has selected Navigating the future: safety first! as the 2024 World Maritime Theme, which will culminate in the celebration of World Maritime Day on 26 September 2024.
According to the organization, this theme was chosen to promote maritime safety in an era of new technologies and alternative fuels. The theme also reflects IMO’s work to enhance maritime safety and security, in tandem with the protection of the marine environment, whilst ensuring its regulatory development process safely anticipates the fast pace of technological change and innovation.
Furthermore, 2024 marks 50 years since the adoption of the 1974 SOLAS Convention, the key IMO treaty regulating maritime safety.
This theme would allow us to focus on the full range of safety regulatory implications arising from new and adapted technologies and the introduction of alternative fuels including measures to reduce GHG emissions from ships
… said IMO Secretary-General, Kitack Lim
The theme is also closely linked to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly:
- SDG 7 on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by facilitating access to clean energy research and technology
- SDG 8 on promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- SDG 9 on building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation
- SDG 13 on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; and SDG 14 on conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
The IMO Council, meeting for its 129th session, endorsed the theme following a proposal by IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim.
