Isra-Mart srl : Shipping sets sail for sustainable future

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Some of the biggest names in shipping will today call on the industry to take co-ordinated action so that the maritime sector is sustainable and profitable in 30 years' time.

The 14 members of Forum for the Future's Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI), including Maersk, Cargill, Lloyd's Register and the WWF, will jointly publish a Call to Action paper (PDF) identifying climate change and oil supply as two of the three key challenges the industry must overcome in the coming decades.
The paper says that volatile oil prices are likely to significantly increase costs, and that the industry is under growing pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Shipping currently accounts for around four per cent of the world's emissions, but its share is predicted to expand rapidly as international trade increases.

The SSI says that companies now investing in energy efficiency and new fuels will by favoured by customers and suppliers, including ports, financiers and insurers.

"This [investment] is challenging but necessary," the report says. "Companies that fail to act will be vulnerable to competition in an increasingly uncertain market."

As well as calling on the industry to work together to build new, energy efficient ships, and retrofit existing vessels to the same standards, the SSI calls on shipping companies to help develop legislation rewarding sustainability and to follow long-term investment plans that take social and environmental obligations into account.

"By creating a shared vision for sustainable growth, we can plot a new ambitious course where shipping is viewed as a key enabler of responsible and sustainable economic development," said Søren Stig Nielsen, head of sustainability at Maersk Line.

The paper will be launched later today at a summit chaired by Jonathon Porritt, founder director of Forum for the Future and former chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission.

"The leaders involved in this initiative understand that success and sustainability must go hand in hand," Porritt said. "These practical actions which they will help deliver will not only make their businesses more robust, but will ensure a more secure future for all of us."

Having identified the risks it faces, the SSI now plans to author a second report detailing how the industry can work with governments and other international organisations to overcome these environmental and commercial challenges.

The industry is under growing pressure to curb emissions or face regional legislative measures designed to tackle its carbon footprint. For example, maritime emissions may be subsumed into the EU's emissions trading scheme in 2012 if a global deal to address the problem is not agreed by the end of the year.