ICS: Shipping Must Be Economically Sustainable to Achieve Environmental Sustainability

ICS says the shipping industry can only be environmentally sustainable if it is economically sustainable.
File Image / Pixabay

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) yesterday, in an address to government trade negotiators in the OECD Working Party on Shipbuilding, said that the shipping industry can only be environmentally sustainable if it is also economically sustainable.

"The perennial challenge facing shipowners is overcapacity, aided and abetted by government subsidies and support measures that encourage shipyards to produce ships that are surplus to requirements," said Simon Bennett, ICS Director of Policy.

"If governments are serious about helping the shipping industry deliver on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the OECD needs to reboot efforts to have a global agreement on the elimination of market distorting measures from shipbuilding. Despite being in existence for over 50 years it's disappointing that the working party on shipbuilding has still made little progress, with the last round of negotiations on a new OECD agreement having been suspended several years ago."

As Ship & Bunker reported earlier this month, ICS is working with other shipowner associations on a proposal to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to ban the carriage of non-compliant bunker fuels upon the 2020 implementation of a global 0.50 percent cap on sulfur in marine fuels.

ICS also recently highlighted its vision for zero carbon shipping future, which it says might be achieved through the use of batteries or fuel cells with renewable energy sources, or other new technologies, such as hydrogen.

"The vision of ICS is zero CO2 emissions as soon as possible using alternative fuels and new propulsion technologies," said Bennett yesterday.

"But so long as ships are dependent on fossils fuels, IMO Member States need to be both politically and technically realistic about what can be achieved in the short term if this is to compatible with the legitimate concerns of emerging economies about the impacts on trade and their sustainable development."