Posted on February 15, 2022
“2022 must be remembered as the year regulators took action to adopt a solid GHG framework”
From the stage of the One Ocean Summit organized by Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Union this semester, A.P. Moller – Maersk CEO, Soren Skou, urged World Leaders to work to ensure a global and concrete regulation at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) that can lead the shipping industry towards a successful green energy transition.
Soren Skou took the floor with fellow CEOs Rolf Habben Jansen (Hapag Lloyd), Rodolphe Saadé (CGM) and Soren Toft (MSC), showing the industry´s unity around the urgent need to decarbonise shipping.
We may have different ways of getting there, but we all agree on the key elements and, even more significantly, on the end goal and the extreme urgency for theIMO to set a valid legal framework. We need action and we need it now, this year. We need France and other EU Member States to lead the efforts not only at regional level, but also at the IMO to ensure we decarbonise shipping in time. We need this strong signal in the form of a basket of measures including a GHG price and an end date to the production of fossil fueled ships.
Soren Skou also highlighted the need for the transition to be just, suggesting that a substantial part of the revenues raised through a global GHG price should go to climate projects in developing states, irrespective of whether these projects are shipping related or not. He emphasised that some of the developing nations present at the summit will likely become leaders in the future green fuel economy.
The One Ocean Summit aims to show tangible action towards preserving and supporting a healthy and sustainable ocean. The summit was held in the context of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the support of the United Nations as part of the run-up to the UN Oceans conference in Lisbon in late June. It is also held ahead of the French presidential elections of April 2022.
Several important initiatives were launched in favour of marine ecosystem protection and sustainable fisheries. They ranged from fighting particularly plastic pollutionto initiatives responding to the impacts of climate change and advocating for improved governance of the oceans.
Maersk also signed up to the “Brest declaration” to support ocean observations while calling on other shipowners to share their weather data (the Odyssey Project).
