Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore (BV), has published a new book, ‘Toward a Sustainable Blue Economy’, in which EVP Matthieu de Tugny highlights the need for the industry to reframe how the global fleet is financed, fuelled, and operated if its decarbonisation goals are to be achieved.
The sequel to BV’s Shaping a Better Maritime World, published in 2022, de Tugny’s new book charts the progress made over the last five years that has seen the industry embrace new technologies that hold the potential to greatly reduce shipping’s carbon emissions. However, in spite of this progress, the industry’s infrastructure, processes, and practices remain grounded in the availability and predictable pricing of fuel oil, which greatly inhibits its ability to transition away from fossil fuels.
Today’s ocean economy is estimated to be worth over US$ 2.2trn and supports over 600m jobs worldwide in its own right. As part of de Tugny’s vision for industry change, he highlights the need to depart from the risk-averse approach that underpins shipping’s financial systems. He calls for a more dynamic focus on green financing that directly links capital to climate performance, whilst engaging in unprecedented levels of collaboration with industry partners and wider stakeholders, to challenge established operational models.
Classification societies, such as BV, sit at the heart of this effort and are uniquely positioned to facilitate change by utilising deep knowledge and understanding of the challenges owners and operators face, whilst providing the necessary assurance, in the form of Approvals in Principle (AiPs), rules, and guidelines to unlock the financial investment that will support the commercial development of clean technologies.
De Tugny said: “We need to combine big thinking with pragmatic execution. The maritime industry is having to contend with a period of unprecedented uncertainty as it works to reduce its carbon emissions, but achieving a sustainable blue economy extends beyond simply decarbonising shipping. It will require a holistic approach to reinvent the systems, processes, and infrastructure that is heavily reliant on fossil fuels combined with often small, pragmatic actions to realise our ambitions.
“BV’s priority is the protection of seafarers and the environment, which means supporting the development of technologies and innovative systems to support seafarer safety and to help to mitigate the impact of maritime operations on the natural environment. A great example is the industry’s work to tackle plastic pollution. This is one of the most pressing issues impacting the marine environment, with 199m tons of plastic adrift in our oceans. To address shipping’s role, AI technology is being deployed to track industrial fishing gear lost at sea, whilst class societies such as BV have developed rules, services and software to support complex container lashings. But most excitingly, a new market is emerging for marine-based plastic substitutes. By developing biodegradable alternatives from seaweed, algae and other sources, this solution demonstrates the creativity and fresh thinking that is needed across so many of shipping’s challenges.
“During this period of transition, the role of classification societies is also shifting, from providing industry assurance to acting as enablers of the unprecedented level of collaboration required to drive fundamental change, below and above the waterline, to protect the health of our oceans and planet.”
In a wide-ranging intervention that explores shipping’s role as a custodian of the oceans at a time when the maritime landscape faces significant environmental challenges, Toward a Sustainable Blue Economy is considered both a roadmap and a rallying cry for the maritime industry to adapt, in order to unlock its sustainable future. The publication can be downloaded from here.
Image: BV EVP Matthieu de Tugny with ‘Toward a Sustainable Blue Economy’ (source: Bureau Veritas)
