ICS calls for global shipping legislation
Balancing environmental aspirations with economic realities, but also with political realities is not easy, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) chairman Spyros M Polemis, pointed out this week.
His speech at the CMA Conference in Connecticut this week was called Balancing Environmental Aspirations With Economic Realities.
It aimed to highlight the danger of aspirational legislation, stressing that shipping is a global industry requiring global rules and urged legislators to ensure proposed environmental legislation is compatible with technical and economic realities.
Urging US States not to implement their own rules, Mr Polemis pointed out: “If major trading nations such as the US adopt rules that are at variance to those agreed by governments at IMO we have chaos and if individual US States decide to implement their own rules in conflict with Federal requirements, it is even worse – we actually run the risk of double chaos.”
In particular, Mr Polemis focused on the the issues of ballast water management and sulphur emissions – pointing out the need to ensure enough low sulphur fuel is available to enable the international shipping community to meet low emissions requirements and the need to establish that equipment actually exists to meet ballast water treatment standards.
He also warned that Market Based Measures may be seen by some governments as fund-raising opportunities with the shipping industry viewed as a ‘cash cow’ by some.
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