Green Economy in a Blue World-Full Report

environmental damage to coastlines, as well as adversely affecting fisheries and tourist industries. In the 1970s governments working through IMO developed the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships (MARPOL) which contains comprehensive requirements to prevent pollution which may be caused both accidentally and in the course of routine operations. In response to more recent shipping incidents, MARPOL now contains many additional provisions such as those which require oil tankers to have double hulls. Significantly MARPOL also includes provisions covering the prevention of other forms of potential marine pollution from bulk chemicals, dangerous goods, sewage and garbage (IMO, 2012c). More recently, however, the focus of the industry and its regulators – encouraged by far greater awareness of the importance of environmental issues amongst all stakeholders – has also been on the wider potential impacts which shipping can have on the environment. In particular, there was awareness of the need to address the impact on local ecosystems of foreign micro- organisms imported in ships’ ballast water; the danger to public health and the environment caused by atmospheric pollution from ships (in particular air pollutants such as sulphur and nitrogen oxides and particulate matter); and the need to reduce shipping’s CO 2 emissions in order to contribute to worldwide efforts to stem climate change. While further possibilities remain with respect to developing, improving and refining existing technical, operational andmanagement measures whichmight help reduce evenmore the traditional sources of marine pollution, it is probably the need to reduce atmospheric and CO 2 emissions which presents the most obvious challenges and opportunities with regard to the transition towards a green economy. That said, recently agreed requirements to dramatically reduce sulphur emissions have also created opportunities for the development of new exhaust scrubbing technologies as a (legally permitted) alternative to the use of low sulphur fuels. Additional potential environmental concerns continue to be identified by governments, NGOs and others, such as the potential implications of maritime transport for the welfare of marine mammals, while greater attention has also been paid to the need to dispose of and recycle redundant ships in an environmentally sustainable manner (ICS, 2012a).

While protection of the marine environment has longbeen a priority for industry and its regulators, this has always had to be reconciled with the overriding priority of protecting the safety of life at sea. The sea being a very hostile environment, marine transportation involves a high degree of physical risk which has to bemanaged effectively. In practice, however, rules and regulations governing safety also serve to prevent one of the major threats to the environment which is oil spills following an accident. More generally, the strict adherence to correct procedures required to prevent other forms of pollution reinforces the need to follow procedures in other areas and the effective practice of a safety culture. However, because shipping is an inherently international industry, with ships trading between different countries, and ship operations involving overlapping jurisdictions, between coastal States, port States, and flag States, there has always been a need for the environmental regulation of shipping to be developed at the international level, not least though a framework of international conventions adopted by governments at IMO. Fortunately, there is a high degree of cooperation between IMO Member States, and a well established understanding amongst governments worldwide of the need for global rules for a global industry. Most IMO conventions governing safety of life at sea and pollution prevention – including agreements on civil liability in the event that things go wrong – enjoy a high degree of international ratification and enforcement, especially when compared to international regulations governing many land- based industries (IMO, 2012d). In particular, the MARPOL Convention has been ratified by virtually every maritime country and is applied, through a combination of flag State inspections and port State control, to virtually the entire world merchant fleet. MARPOL Annexes I and II (governing prevention of pollution by oil and chemicals) have been ratified by over 150 States covering 99 per cent of the world merchant fleet (IMO, 2012e). Governments at IMO recognize its unique role as the specialist regulatory agency dealing almost exclusively with maritime safety and pollution prevention issues. For the most part, therefore, decisions at IMOaffecting international shipping are taken on the basis of their technical merits rather than wider political or macroeconomic considerations. (Remarkably, this was the case even during the cold war years, in particular the 1970s and1980s.) IMOhas accordingly been very well equipped to respond rapidly to demands from individual governments, policymakers,

in a Blue World

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