The Shipping News

Is not good. I wrote an article today for ESG Magazine about the shipping industry, which, due to its global nature, is not covered by the COP21 agreement to reduce emissions. Same for aviation.
The International Maritime Organisation was encouraged to do something about this--to fill the gap--but has so far not done so. It is made up of nation states that flag carriers and apparently the countries are more interested in protecting their maritime industry and ports (=revenue) than protecting the future of the oceans.
I pitched my feature to be about the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, which was to fill the vacuum that nature abhors. I was saddened to learn that SSI is a lot of talk and not a lot of action. I’d just like to say, as a writer, it is disheartening to write about all the ways in which organisations are doing nothing but try to make appearances that they are doing something. SSI has a “roadmap” for their Vision 2040--to have a sustainable shipping industry by 2040--but the milestones on the roadmap are wishful thoughts with no realistic action assigned to this decade or the next or the next.
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