Regulation will be “vital” for ports and vessels to reduce emissions, argues one of the world’s largest shipping liners.
Ocean Network Express (ONE) and PSA Corporation (PSA) have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to progress innovative green solutions.
In an interview with PTI, an ONE spokesperson said challenges facing industry – such as reaching targets from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050 – were “enormous”.
The spokesperson said that regulation could encourage cross-sector carbon-reducing efforts such as LNG bunkering in Baltic ports or project using hydrogen across multiple modes of transport.
“We [see] it imperative to have a more inclusive ecosystem where more stakeholders from various segments could connect and synergise with each other,” ONE said.
“A clear transparent and internalised regulatory framework would be very vital for the industry as well.”
Greater regulation for sustainability initiatives is on the horizon: the European Union in July 2021 released its updated FuelEU Maritime legislation to provide regulation on carbon reduction adherence in the years ahead; echoing industry calls to provide legal frameworks for GHG emission reduction strategies.
“We are confident that with more like-minded partners joining hands, the shipping industry as a whole will contribute significantly to the global environmental sustainability,” ONE outlined to PTI.
“Partners included in this ecosystem could greatly complement each other, which bears tremendous meaning in an environment where we still have to live with a lot of uncertainties and unknowns. Like this African proverb goes, if you want to run fast, run alone. If you want to run far, run together.”
Container transport ‘shaken up’
As part of the MoU, both parties will leverage each other’s expertise and solutions.
“ONE and PSA are positioned distinctly along the maritime value chain, which has naturally provided each other a significant role to complement their individual efforts in respective emission reporting scopes,” the spokesperson said.
ONE said it was “definitely interested” to harness digital container flow enhancement and terminal services from PSA for ONE-operated ships.
“Guided by the environmental sustainability objective and facilitated by the ongoing digitalisation movement, ONE is seeing the conventional way of container moving getting shaken up and starting to form a new but more efficient pattern,” the liner noted.
PSA’s CALISTA digital platform, for example, connects the community of logistics stakeholders and provides cargo flow visibility.
A spokesperson for PSA told PTI, “One of the areas that we see potential in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is collaborating with the shipping lines to maximise the utilisation of their vessels through data analytics and joint planning.
“The ability to manage cargo flow would minimise wastage of transport resources and move goods via more eco-friendly modes such as barges in lieu of trucks. Having state-of-the-art digital platforms will help to optimise shipping and port operations which in turn, will reduce overall emissions.”
Improved cargo visibility can provide trucking, rail, and inland transport operators with the knowledge to effectively forward goods, reducing turnaround times, errors made, and carbon emissions of inland supply chain agents.
The spokesperson continued, “Both parties will co-create and implement solutions to reduce GHG emissions across scopes, which will complement and benefit not just us, but also our partners across the maritime value chain.
“To achieve our decarbonisation goals, it is vital for PSA to seek out synergies and build on promising collaborative efforts in the maritime and logistics industry.”
