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When we are talking about the stakeholders of the shipping industry, it is wrong to mention only the shipping companies, operators, port providers. We should not forget society, which plays an important role.
From my experience, being a seafarer in the 70’s, I remember all the time since then that new legislation was coming due to the demand of implementing something new. In the old days, ship owners used to have quite a big influence but nowadays, we actually face a situation wondering where we are heading for and who is going to help. I can imagine that many of us are confused and feel lost. Unfortunately, I am not going to tell you what the solution is, actually I don’t know! However, there is a direction that can drive to a solution.
Picture below shows that ports around the world have incentives for ships complying with standards. Red faces show that there are incentives for ships certified with Green Award eg in Canada, South Africa, the majority of ports in Europe, New Zealand. Yellow faces show that there are incentives available for ships complying to Environmental Ship Index (ESI). Green faces show local programs, initiated by the ports itself, such as in Singapore – the Green Ship Program. This trend shows that there are indeed some incentives available and regardless their size, they are still important.
Also, there are more parties who influence this global picture such as RIGHTSHIP. RIGHTSHIP is both a vetting and also an environmental database which gives direction to charters whether a ship is interesting or not. So, here, there is a link to shippers and charters and their reflection to the society.
Another party that can influence the global picture is Clean Shipping Index. It is a program that deals with environmental issues and shows, mainly in Scandinavian shippers, what the standard of a ship is from environmental perspective. Shippers use this database in order to choose a ship for their business.
All these elements can affect new legislation and can drive ship owners into a direction to be ahead of legislation because apparently the society wants to go faster than the legislator.
In one hand, the only thing I know is that you need for sure a good plan in order to make your future decisions. On the other hand, by seeing the motivation of ports and charters, I think you have to watch very carefully for what they like you to do.
The big question is whether we are talking for economical challenges or opportunities. If you collaborate with all incentive providers as mentioned before, this will make you watch a sustainable future from environmental and safety point of view and hopefully from economical point of view. But if you don’t, you may be out of business. You have to be proactive, look in the future and invest in what society needs.
Above article is an edited version of Jan’s Fransen presentation during 2013 Green4Sea Forum
You may view relevant video by clicking here