Americas News
ICS: Uniform International Rules are Vital to Avoid Chaos
It is vital for governments to recognise the importance of uniform international rules concerning ship operation and environmental protection, The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has said.
Differing rules at opposite ends of a voyage would result in "chaos, reducing the smooth flow of global trade in a manner that was safe, clean and efficient."
The comments were made in a press release following ICS's presentation during Oceans Day at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio+20, which is being held this month in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
ICS also said agreement on the need for government support of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) should be be one of the main outcomes of Rio+20.
Speaking to delegates at the Summit, ICS Regulatory Affairs Director, David Tongue, said shipping was "already by far the greenest form of commercial transport" but is also already in agreement to deliver a 20% improvement in energy efficiency by 2020.
ICS, who say it represents over 80% of the world merchant fleet, said it thought the regulatory framework provided by IMO has "served the Oceans well", citing as example the number of significant oil spills decreasing from 233 per year in the 1970s to just 31 per year during the last 10 years, despite the volume of maritime trade more than tripling during the same period.
"Other international sectors concerned with the Oceans could learn a great deal from the way in which the UN International Maritime Organization successfully regulates shipping," Tongue said.
ICS added that shipping underpins improvements in global standards of living having facilitated the movement of much of the world's industrial production to Asia and other emerging economies in Latin America.
Rio+20 is being attended by some 172 governments and is being held twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and 10 years after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.
The Conference's key themes are to address poverty and sustainable development.
