Published: 11 Dec 2009
Danish shippers highlight environmental shipping at Copenhagen climate change summit
A Greenships of the Future program funded by shipowners is being highlighted at the climate change summit in Oslo this month with the aim of giving shipping industry to gain some much-needed exposure, Lloyds List reports.
Many Danish ship owners have invested in projects looking to improve vessel efficiency.
Denmark is the third largest country in the world in terms of operating fleet and turnover.
Shipowners, such as Torm, Maersk and Norden, have come out resoundingly behind the proposal from its government for a form of bunker contribution for an international greenhouse gas fund to alleviate global warming by:
• mitigation and adaptation activities, either through the IMO for developing countries' fleets
• research and development projects outside the maritime industry.
The objectives are to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% and those of SOx and NOx by 90% each.
"It is undoubtedly the single most direct set of projects being worked on by the shipping industry to counter its environmental impact," Lloyds reports.
MEANWHILE the Australian Shipowners' Association announced today it is keenly awaiting the outcomes of the historical United Nations' Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
ASA has reaffirmed its' support for global measures to reduce shipping's CO2 emissions.
"Transporting approximately 90 per cent of world trade, there is consensus amongst the global shipping industry that the most effective means of reducing CO2 emissions by ships will be for the Copenhagen Conference to give the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) a mandate to finalise the comprehensive package of technical and economic measures which it has already developed," it said.
The MUA fully supports the Rudd Government's proposals for reducing carbon pollution and emphasises the crucial role of the maritime sector has in achieving the required cuts to emmissions. Quite simply, shipping is the most environmentally friendly mode of transport and increasing its capacity will reduce Australia's carbon emmissions.
