By Polaris managing partner Ben Pinnington
The sounds of screeching breaks can heard around the world. There can be little doubt the bruising confrontations at the IMO today are thrusting maritime further into the mainstream and the optics are not great.
Tradewinds reported that shipping was ‘in disarray’ as delegates at the IMO, under pressure from the US, voted to delay the IMO Net Zero framework for a year. A measure backed by many in the IMO six months ago is now on life support.
We cannot say we did not see this coming. There were clear signs of fracturing relationships during LISW when ABS CEO Christopher Wiernicki dropped a bombshell saying ‘Shipping and the IMO are on different trajectories.’
Maritime has hardly taken its public relations in the mainstream media seriously for decades and now there is a reckoning. Many have warned you cannot choose to be low profile. The news can come to you. And if you have not built a reputation communicating good behaviour you cannot expect the mainstream to give you the benefit of the doubt when a story like this breaks and schism within the sector develops.
This is a great shame as the decarbonisation question is incredibly difficult (a key theme of my new book Making Waves: PR strategies to transform your maritime business). Maritime now needs to up its game and educate the mainstream about its “emissions Everest” setting out the immense cost to decarbonise maritime – up to $1.9trillion. And further explain how difficult it is to find an alternative fuel to power ships the size of the Empire State Building with 120,000 hp engines.
Failure to get this right risks a deeper reputational backlash in years to come. Today shipping is responsible for 3pc of global emissions but that could rise to 18pc by 2050 as other sectors like road, rail and aerospace decarbonize much more quickly and easily leaving maritime exposed as the laggard.
In addition, maritime should now do way more to highlight the billions being invested in decarbonisation and innovation. The industry can point to some seriously impressive results: between 2009 and 2019, carbon dioxide emissions fell by approximately 14%, according to Clarkson estimates, despite a roughly 40% increase in cargo volumes. Quite an achievement, and one we should be shouting from the rooftops, thanks to slow steaming and new greener technology. In comparison, emissions from road transport rose by about 20%, while those from air transport grew by around 25%.
Maritime can also point to the huge efforts it is making to tackle emissions, from wind power to slow steaming, to retrofits deploying batteries, to greener alternative fuels, to high-tech AI routing efficiencies and weather mapping, as well as hull cleaning. For all the trials and tribulations at the IMO, this is an incredible effort and should be championed and celebrated across mainstream and social media. Now in light of the crisis at the IMO this campaign is needed more than ever.