The risks of working in enclosed spaces are well known across the shipping world: seafarers entering such areas can encounter oxygen-deficient/enriched, flammable or toxic atmospheres, with multiple fatalities or injuries sometimes occurring if crewmates find a casualty in an enclosed space, enter that space to effect a rescue and then also fall victim to the same hazard.
The world's supply chains - often praised for their resilience and ability to minimise costs through just-in-time delivery, manufacturing and processing, as well as allowing companies across various parts of the economy to integrate their production streams from optimal locations worldwide - have come under ever closer scrutiny since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our recent survey of shipowners from the container, tanker, bulk, cruise, and ferry sectors demonstrated that they see a global carbon tax as a way of levelling the playing field for adopting new bunker fuels.
European Flagship Action for Cold Ironing in Ports (EALING) is a 36-month-long project, co-funded through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), tasked with leading all the necessary technical, environmental, socio-economic, and financial studies to accelerate the preparation works towards setting up onshore power facilities in at least 16 EU ports spread across different European seas.
Shipping is a high-carbon-emitting industry whose green transition is critical to limiting global warming in line with the Paris Agreement (less than 1.5°C/2.7°F by 2050).
Shipping's value chain can expect continued pressure on targets and commitments until it clearly aligns with an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)-derived definition of the steps needed to avoid temperatures rising above 1.5°C.
The 2020s have finally brought about a situation where the whole shipping industry, under pressure, is considering various means and forces that will be used to reduce maritime emissions in the coming decades.
