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The Chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), Masamichi Morooka, has sounded a plea for industry governing bodies to guard against over-zealous environmental regulation that he fears could drive investment away from the maritime industry.
Morooka has been addressing delegates at this week’s Connecticut Maritime Association event in USA.
Economic sustainability
Speaking during a key debate on The Regulatory Environment, Morooka said: “While our regulators have a responsibility to balance the interests of shipowners with the need to protect the environment and the interests of wider society, they also need to be pragmatic and to have an understanding of the impact that their actions are having on the industry’s own long-term sustainability. Otherwise there is a danger of creating an industry in which investors will not want to invest.
“The protection of the environment is of great importance, but we must balance the measures we take with the economic impact of these measures. At present shipping finance has virtually dried up. This is not just for new ships but also for the investments needed to continue operating existing ships in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner.”
Expensive 'green' technologies
Morooka pointed out that investing in environmental measures such as exhaust gas cleaning systems and ‘green’ technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, as well as installing ballast water treatment systems and the use of distillate fuels, could cost the shipping industry “hundreds of billions”.
Posing several questions in his speech, he asked: “How will ship operators manage all these additional costs rising so high that they have a dramatic impact on world trade or force cargo back onto roads or to other, less carbon-efficient modes of transport?
“If a shipping company is already sinking in debt, how is it going to pay for the retrofitting of expensive new ballast water treatment systems that will be required in the next few years, at an estimated cost of between one and five million dollars per ship?
“We are committed to protecting the environment but I do not believe that shipowners should shy away from asking these challenging questions.”
At a meeting in February to discuss amongst other things a proposed mandatory system of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of emissions (MRV), the ICS expressed its hope that key industry bodies will steer clear of recommendations that ship owners should install what it believes to be “expensive or impractical emission monitoring equipment”.