Classification societies are failing to take a stand on the controversial issue of how much shipping can be expected to reduce the industry's carbon footprint, major Greek shipowner Panos Laskaridis says.
“The time has come for you to speak clearly,” Laskaridis told a conference audience, scolding class societies of “trying to be nice to us [shipowners], politicians, government and I don’t know to who else”.
He was addressing a working lunch with other Greek shipping luminaries at the Piraeus Marine Club today.
Laskaridis pointed out he was expressing personal views and was not wearing his hat as president of the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA).
By suggesting emission cuts of more than 70% by 2050, politicians were carrying “totally unrealistic positions” to the emissions debate, Laskaridis said.
Such targets were "simply political statements or at best negotiating positions," he continued.
Class societies were failing to contribute to that debate because they were “trying to be nice to us [shipowners], politicians, governments and I don’t know who else,” Laskaridis said.
“You are trying to stand with your feet on two boats and we don’t like that,” Laskaridis said.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is set to soon hold a key environmental committee meeting (IMO MEPC 72) about emissions.
Classification societies should come out in an “unambiguous way” and take a stand on whether proposals to reduce carbon emissions by more than 70% were technically feasible, the Greek owner concluded.
Backed up by big guns
Other major shipping players expressed similar views.
It was absurd that shipping had to defend itself over its carbon footprint since it accounts for just about 2% of the world’s total emissions, while conducting about 90% of world trade, said John Platsidakis, senior executive at the Angelicoussis Shipping Group.
“Welcome to the world of paranoia,” he said during the same working lunch.
Shipping was all in favour of environmental regulation, as long as they were “practical and really address the problem,” Platsidakis said.
Alongside his role at the Angelicoussis Group, Platsidakis is chairman of dry bulk shipowners’ association Intercargo.
Like Laskaridis, however, Platsidakis pointed out he was “expressing personal thoughts”.
Earlier today, the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS) vehemently attacked a report by green group Transport & Environment released last week, which ranked Greece last among European Union member states to tackling climate change, based on their written and oral submissions to the IMO.
"Claims published recently using dubious and utterly self-fulfilling methodology regarding the alleged climate ambition of individual EU member states are totally dismissed as blatant populist sensationalism," the UGS said.
