During this year’s Tripartite Shipbuilding Forum, which attracted more than 100 delegates, carbon emissions, safety and cyber security were at the top of the agenda. The Forum took place in Nantong, China and was hosted by China Classification Society.
This year’s themes were decarbonisation of ships, safe design and digitalisation. These issues are interlinked as they are all relevant to the creation of a more efficient seaborne transport system.
At the end of the Tripartite Forum and after two days of debate it was agreed that the industry needs to design ships differently and be more technologically innovative to reach world climate goals and counter cyber security risks.
Moreover, it was agreed that the shipping industry needs to use all available technology to a much greater extent and increase technological innovation to reduce CO2 emissions to the ambitious degree required by the international community.
The Tripartite forum has therefore established inter-industry working groups, in order to develop a better understanding of current R&D efforts for the new technologies needed by the shipping sector to realise its vision for zero CO2 emissions this century.
The crucial importance of the safety of seafarers and the ships which they operate were also part of the meeting’s agenda.
During the Forum, it was noted that there are increasing concerns that new regulations governing ship designs aimed at further reducing CO2 emissions could potentially have adverse effects on the safe operation of ships.
One example would be any legal requirements that led to a further reduction of engine power. The concern is that ships could get into problems during bad weather if the engine is insufficiently powered, putting both the crew and the environment at serious risk.
Furthermore, recent cyber attacks have increased awareness of potential threats facing the industry.
As far as ship design and construction are concerned, it was generally agreed that the industry must adopt new methods and standards to create more resilient digital systems on board. A more layered approach to a ship’s digital system and greater segregation can increase safety, so that a single attack cannot readily spread to IT and other systems both on board the ship and ashore.
The Tripartite forum agreed also, that in advance of its next meeting in 2018, the industry partners represented at Tripartite will work together to develop new design standards, which will help raise the resilience of ships’ digital systems and make them more resistant to possible cyber attacks.
Next year’s Tripartite meeting, which will be held in the Autumn of 2018 in the Republic of Korea.
