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INTERVIEW
As Founding Chair of the newly formed GloFouling Alliance, Darren Jones is tasked with bringing together industry leaders to tackle two pressing IMO environmental objectives, a remit that has far-reaching effects, he tells Clean Shipping International
TIME TO TACKLE THE INVADERS
Darren Jones Director, Sonihull
Darren Jones, director of Ultrasonic antifouling system provider Sonihull is taking up the Founding Chair of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) GloFouling Alliance (GIA). To give it its full title, he is Chair of the Global Industry Alliance (GIA) for Marine Biosafety, part of the IMO’s GloFouling Partnerships project, often shortened to the “GloFouling Alliance”. The GIA was launched in June 2020 to bring together shipping industry stakeholders, the private sector and global regulators to address the impact of biofouling on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the transfer of harmful aquatic species. In essence, the partnership is a collaboration between the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the IMO. Also involved are more than 50 strategic partners, which include government agencies, industry associations, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs),
academia and other international and regional inter-governmental organisations that share the same goal. Jones explains that GloFouling is a global initiative, designed to bring together committed leaders from maritime, shipping, ocean energy, aquaculture and other ocean-based industries, to support two pressing IMO environmental objectives via improved biofouling management — namely, to protect marine biodiversity and decarbonise shipping. “Environmental” no longer means “expensive”, he says. Done correctly, preventing biofouling will be the exact opposite. Carbon and costs can both be reduced with existing technologies and that means that all countries can benefit from a united approach, especially those whose marine environments and livelihoods are most likely to be damaged by invasive species. Explaining the task ahead, he says that, in a nutshell, the aim of the GIA is to tackle two of the most pressing environmental issues of our time — invasive species and GHG
C L E A N S H I P P I N G I N T E R N A T I O N A L – S p r i n g 2 0 21
