WORLD NEWS

Decarbonisation is firmly on the radar of the industry, with a raft of initiatives and projects that are helping the move towards net zero

GLOBAL NEWS ROUND-UP

DNV recently hosted the Nordic Roadmap project’s inaugural conference at Høvik with speakers from across the maritime value chain providing insights on the topic of future fuels for shipping. The conference put the spotlight on the project’s latest research, with a sharp focus on concrete initiatives that will drive the decarbonisation of shipping.

Funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and with strong regional support from all the Nordic countries, the Nordic Roadmap project is focused on establishing a Nordic co-operation platform to facilitate knowledge sharing, pilot projects, studies to build experience in new fuels, establish “green shipping corridors” and the enabling infrastructure.

Opening the event, DNV Maritime CEO Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen stressed that the success of maritime decarbonisation hinges on close collaboration, trust and continuous learning: “No one player or industry can approach decarbonisation in isolation, nor is it a transition that can be done at the same time across the globe. We have to start somewhere.

“In the Nordics, we have a tremendous opportunity to drive progress and set an example others can follow, with learnings that can be duplicated beyond our borders. As wealthy countries we have the resources and must exercise that responsibility.”

In his address, Sveinung Oftedal, specialist director, Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, highlighted the positive impact the project can have beyond the region: “With its strong traditions for cooperation, stable green policies and innovative maritime cluster the Nordics is ideally placed to lead the way in the decarbonisation of shipping. Through the Nordic Roadmap project financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers, we will stimulate collaboration and innovation within the Nordic maritime industry to create solutions that will drive the energy transition forward.”

Karl Arthur Bræin, chief commercial officer at Amon Maritime, offered insight

into the company’s work with leading technology, commercial and financial partners, to realise the first ammoniapowered ships and ammonia bunker terminals: “We believe in building demand for ammonia early by showing producers that a maritime off-take exists. We hope this encourages the supply side to accelerate global production of green or blue sustainable ammonia.

To give the various stakeholders confidence that they are making the right business decision, we need predictable government policies. Contracts for Difference is an important tool to create price parity with traditional fuels, mitigate uncertainty and establishing a market for ammonia as a maritime fuel.”

Björn Garberg, national coordinator for domestic and short sea shipping at Trafikverket, delivered insights from a market study on green shipping corridors and underlined the important role governments can have in facilitating industry partnerships: “Dialogue with the industry is key to driving progress and build scalable solutions. No one wants to or should have to take on the whole financial risk that the energy transition brings.

Sharing the risk is the only way to success and at Trafikverket we are ready to play our part in helping industry stakeholders come together and form partnerships.”

SUSTAINABLE RECRUITMENT

Maritime HR, recruitment and executive search expert Spinnaker, has revealed the results of its 2022 shore-based salary survey, comprising 41,000 jobs in the industry.

The results show 192 jobs have either “environment”, “environmental”, “sustain”, “sustainability”, “governance”, “transition”, “carbon”, “ESG”, “Chief Environmental Officer” or “change” in the title.

While this number does not sound particularly high, the data reveals that 29% of maritime organisations have at least one role dedicated to transforming business practices towards a more sustainable approach. This is in contrast to just five years ago, when environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues were mostly dealt with by marketing and PR departments rather than sustainability specialists. The maritime industry is making headway and taking action to prioritise sustainability, even if change is slow.

Teresa Peacock, managing director – executive search at Spinnaker, comments: “Although the numbers of sustainability-focused jobs don’t look high on the surface, progress is being made. On an almost weekly basis we have clients approaching us looking for candidates with sustainability experience and we’ve seen this kind of new-market dynamic before – think the dot-com era and the rapid growth of the liquefied natural gas sector.

“While the current holy grail is sustainability and maritime experience, there are only so many of these people to go round. This may explain the lower amount of dedicated sustainability jobs, as organisations must import people from other sectors, invest in existing people or poach from within the industry.”

The shore-based salary survey was prepared in October 2022, with responses provided by 88 shipping companies, comprised of Maritime HR Association members.

ANTI-PLASTIC CAMPAIGN

BIMCO has launched a campaign to raise awareness and help support the removal of single-use plastic bottles from ships.

Today, even if plastics on board ships are sorted, managed and discharged to shore in a proper way, mismanagement of waste on land means it can still reach the ocean. With up to 1.75bn plastic bottles a year being used on board ships, BIMCO believes removing unnecessary plastics is the industry’s best option to help remove a source that may end up reaching the ocean.

As a first step, BIMCO has partnered with Ocean Bottle on co-branded reusable bottles, which symbolise the change needed within the shipping industry; ships moving from singleuse plastic bottles to sustainable alternatives such as onboard water supplies or larger dispensers.

“We’ve learned from members who have successfully implemented initiatives to remove single-use plastics bottles from their ships that providing crew with a reusable bottle, alongside other actions, can make a big difference. More than half of the companies that recently completed a BIMCO survey are already providing such bottles,” says Dr Bev Mackenzie, head of intergovernmental engagement at BIMCO.

The organisation estimates that an onboard system is a quarter of the cost of providing water in single-use plastic bottles and can pay for itself in just one year. In addition, BIMCO evidence suggests that refills can save around 2,355kg of CO2 emissions per ship per year.

Refilling a bottle from a modern system also supports crew welfare as today’s alternatives provide good quality, safe and tasty drinking water.

“While solutions exist, we still have work to do and will be working with our members to support them in selecting onboard systems and bottles to best suit their needs. What we do know is that our industry’s small steps in phasing out single-use plastic bottles could have a big impact,” Mackenzie says.

Every bottle bought by BIMCO will fund the collection of 11.4kg (more than 1,000 single use plastic bottles in weight) of Ocean Plastic from the worlds most polluted waterways.

Plastic is collected by locals from some of the worst affected coastal communities, such as the Philippines, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, India, and Indonesia, who then exchange the plastic for money or receive digital credit to swap for tuition, tech goods, healthcare, and micro-finance.

This infrastructure is made possible with help from partners Plastic Bank, Plastics for Change and rePurpose who set up collection sites and ensure transactions to collectors are secure through traceable technology.

The BIMCO/Ocean Bottle branded bottles will be distributed among key stakeholders, leaders, and volunteers over the months to come to help address single-use plastics on board and spread the campaign message.

GUIDE TO GHG

The International Chamber of Shipping has officially launched the first edition of an essential new guide to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships.

The guide will help decision makers chart their way through the major technical and operational changes required to achieve the reduction targets for 2030, agreed by the UN International Maritime Organization.

EMISSIONS TRADING

German shipowners have welcomed the provisional agreement on EU emissions trading for shipping agreed recently.

“We welcome the fact that the long phase of uncertainty about the concrete design of the EU emissions trading scheme and its application to maritime transport has now come to an end and that shipping companies will be finally able to plan accordingly,” says German Shipowners’ Association CEO Dr Martin Kroeger.

“However, with a view to achieving our ambitious climate targets, we are still of the opinion that an international market-based measure within the framework of the International Maritime Organization would be more effective.

“It remains important not to use the revenues from the EU emissions trading system to plug other holes in the EU budget. The revenues from emissions trading must urgently be used for research and development of alternative fuels and their market readiness,” continues Kroeger.

“Therefore, it is a positive step into the right direction that the industry’s position was followed in the negotiations and that it was agreed to earmark funds specifically for the shipping sector under the EU Innovation Fund.

“Achieving the goal of maritime energy transition will only be possible, if we can make a market-ready technology commercially viable as well as accessible to a broad mass of ships worldwide. As shipping does not produce fuel itself, we can only look for solutions together. In terms of the percentages of the phase-in period, we would have liked to have as shipping industry a little more leeway. But we also understand that in the end a compromise must always be found. “The shipping industry will not be able to tackle the major task of decarbonisation alone. All stakeholders must be on board. European shipping companies are facing considerable additional financial burdens as a result of the EU measures. Shouldering this burden and remaining competitive at the same time is a challenge, which the shipping industry must not be left to deal with alone.”

The file on the revision of the EU Emissions Trading Directive has not yet been completed. Since not only shipping, but also other sectors are being negotiated in this dossier, the final green light can only be expected within the coming weeks.

AVOIDING GREENWASHING

In a briefing by law firm HFW, Olivier Bazin and Jason Marett discuss how commodity traders and other users of commodity trade finance instruments can reduce greenwashing risks.

On the morning of 31 May 2022 German police raided the Frankfurt offices of German investment fund DWS and Deutsche Bank as part of a probe into allegations of greenwashing.

This followed an investigation by BaFin, the German financial regulator, and a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US.

In October, HSBC was censured by the UK Advertising Standards Authority for making environmental assertions that omitted material information about its financing of activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

These enforcement actions are focused on prevention of fraud and investor protection in financial services and it is clear that trade finance is not immune.

As ‘green’ and sustainabilitylinked trade finance has surged in the past two years, so too have risks of greenwashing. Put simply, greenwashing occurs when a company falsely claims that something is greener that it really is. Everyone can agree that greenwashing is bad – it hurts investors as well as those companies engaged in genuinely ‘green’ or sustainable activities or financings. Ultimately greenwashing makes it harder to improve the sustainability of our economies because the legitimacy of genuine sustainability efforts is undermined, the company says.

Until recently there have been relatively few consequences for companies that engage in greenwashing. Industry players are now seeing an increasing risk of civil claims (eg from NGOs) or regulatory action against companies that make misleading green claims.

YARA MARINE:

COLLABORATING ON GREEN FUTURES

As we emerge from COP27 with renewed determination to achieve our decarbonisation goals, it is imperative that we have buy-in from stakeholders across the supply chain. This includes building the right company cultures to nurture sustainability, writes Aleksander Askeland, chief sales officer of Yara Marine Technologies.

With 2022 drawing to a close, it is heartening to come together as an industry to review progress we have made over the last year. While there is clearly a great deal to still accomplish, shipping is already establishing clear progress on certain emission targets.

For example, incoming regulations such as the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) and the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) will help us achieve emission reductions for operations. Meanwhile, EU ports

“We need the buy-in of stakeholders and individuals across the board”

have shown renewed interest in the advantages of shore power, and discussion on the production, infrastructure and adoption of future fuels within maritime is proceeding apace. These factors all indicate that maritime is making progress in the collaborative journey to net zero.

However, while ambitions are underway to make decarbonisation feasible, adoption and familiarisation of greener technology and skills appear to be on a much slower timeline. While strong leadership may accelerate this timeline to an extent, leadership by itself cannot instill change from the ground up.

In short, we need the buy-in of stakeholders and individuals across the board to ensure that sustainability is here to stay – and I believe that company cultures will have a strong role to play in this process. DESIGNING TECHNOLOGIES RIGHT

It is likely that renewed interest in environment, social and governance (ESG) across multiple industries – especially maritime – is the result of recognition of the interlinked nature of these elements, leading us to refer to it as a singular concept: ESG. We cannot talk about infrastructure, fuels and technology without acknowledging that workers in these sectors will determine the final uptake of these fuels and technologies. Their comfort and understanding of change will impact whether vessels are able to run efficiently and smoothly, and changes to this process will inevitably lead to long term market shifts and pressures.

In other words, upskilling and the Maritime Just Transition task force must underpin maritime’s

evolving relationship with ESG and decarbonisation.

This global workforce upskilling must be safety-led, equipping workers to handle our wide variety of vessel types, ages and operating contexts. Seafarers and shore-based staff will be expected to keep pace with rapidly changing regulations, fuels and technologies, making ease of use a critical factor. Speaking as a green technology provider, smart equipment cannot deliver its intended purpose unless it caters to the needs of the human element.

We will need to find ways to streamline design so crew can easily understand how best to use these systems to lower emissions, harness all available functions and deliver results. At the end of the day, each piece of new technology has a learning curve before anyone can operate it as per design specs for maximum efficiency. Therefore, building an additional timeframe for familiarisation and ensuring simplicity will vastly increase accessibility of the technology for crew, and lead to the best possible results.

CULTIVATING COMPANY CULTURES

For people to succeed in their jobs, they must work in supportive environments – and values must permeate every level. But building grassroot commitments to sustainability cannot stop there – it must also be part of our company cultures across the board. Organisations must account for the needs of seafarers and shore-based staff throughout their processes, so that we are collectively doing right by the people driving our industry.

This ethos is something we truly embrace at Yara Marine Technologies. Our awareness that our goals as a green technology provider are largely in line with the needs of our workforce, goes beyond the creation of a compelling ESG strategy or marketing our solutions: it is a core value that underpins every decision we make and action we take.

There can be no doubt that addressing climate change will be part of the lived experience of everyone across the globe, including our current and future workforces. Therefore, our calls for action and our drive to make real change are also an investment in the continued safety and quality of life of our own colleagues – as well as of our families and friends.

We also acknowledge the important role that our own workforces play in creating industry-wide change, which will have global impact. The ability to design technologies and solutions that will deliver maritime’s decarbonisation transformation is no small feat and requires foresight, project planning, discussion, testing and the flexibility to see goals for greener operations evolving over time. These values must be nurtured if they are to take root and prove fruitful in a challenging, fast-evolving environment.

LEADING CHANGE TOGETHER

Collaboration is the most important ingredient in the formula for successful change. The actions of a single entity are usually limited, but when partners work together, the efficiencies of scale combined with the diversity in approaches can deliver robust results. More importantly, it also delivers trust and shared values.

The low-carbon future of maritime is collaborative and connected, relying on long-term partnerships to deliver insight into ongoing operations and facilitate knowledge sharing. This will prevent different groups from wasting resources by reinventing the wheel and speed up both the pace of technology and its acceptance across the sector.

Nurturing relationships with our internal teams and external stakeholders (such as customers, partners, regulators and even some of our competitors) will plant the seeds of a brighter future for maritime. And – given its role as the primary means of global trade – will ensure that maritime can deliver the materials and goods needed for nations to meet their commitment to the Paris Climate Accords and prevent global warming from impacting every living being on this planet.

Change is never easy, but we can shape the direction that the future takes. For our team at Yara Marine Technologies, we stand ready to do the best we can with the resources we have today. We hope you will do the same. For more information, visit: yaramarine.com