Looking for a ‘Just Transition’ to net zero

The global shipping industry’s representative bodies have been busy in the run-up to the COP27 environmental conference in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt,which finishes this Friday. They have come up with two major initiatives

As discussed in this column two weeks ago, the first was a proposal to create a global maritime taxation system targetting bunkers.

The second, launched at COP27 last week, is a “shipping action plan” that responds to new research cautioning that as many as 800,000 seafarers will need carbon upskilling by the mid-2030s.

The Maritime Just Transition Task Force (Task Force) was established during COP26 last year by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the United Nations Global Compact, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

A paper headlined “Mapping a Maritime Just Transition for Seafarers” puts forward a 10-point action plan in response to new research. Modelling of three emission reduction scenarios estimates hundreds of thousands of seafarers requiring additional training to handle alternative fuels up to 2050. Its Action Plan is put forward as practical recommendations for industry, governments and workers and academia, including training providers.

The Task Force makes the now familiar case: “Currently accounting for 3 per cent of global emissions, shipping needs to transition away from conventional fuels towards alternative low-and zero-carbon fuels and technologies to meet the world’s target of keeping global warming to 1.5C or less by 2050.”

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The research was conducted by classification society DNV and commissioned by the Maritime Just Transition Task Force Secretariat (Task Force) which was formed to “ensure that shipping’s response to the climate emergency puts seafarers and communities at the heart of the solution”. It focused on three scenarios involving different speeds of progress towards decarbonisation.

According to the Task Force: “The world’s 1.89 million seafarers are key to powering this industry through a successful transition. Future alternative fuel technologies, such as hydrogen, ammonia, batteries, and biofuels, are expected to introduce new training for all seafarers, in addition to familiarisation onboard, specific to the ship they are joining.”

In response to the training challenge that the modelling identifies, the Action Plan makes recommendations for industry, governments, seafarer unions and academia (including training providers). These recommendations include: strengthening global training standards, ensuring a health-and-safety-first approach, establishing advisory national maritime skills councils.

Having read through the whole paper, it is clear that there is little to really take issue with but it is not much more than a worthy wish list.

Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant Secretary-General and CEO of the UN Global Compact, is quoted by the Task Force as saying: “Climate action focused on people and job creation must be at the core of a Just Transition to Net Zero. This new paper highlights that aligning with a 1.5 C trajectory requires action now to support the upskilling of the maritime workforce as the shipping industry moves to rapidly cut its greenhouse gas emissions. The action-plan represents a global first as it marks the first business sector uniting in a tripartite framework – shipowners, seafarers’ unions and UN organisations – to discuss how to secure a Just Transition together.”

ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton added, “All three scenarios DNV identified require some form of retraining the workforce. The good news is that seafarers are prepared and willing to be part of this transition. But crew want to know that the fuels they’re handling are indeed safe, and that we as an industry have the training pathways established to upgrade their skills. Seafarers and other maritime workers are already feeling the effects of an unstable climate – dry unnavigable rivers, soaring ocean surface temperatures, shutdown ports with heatwaves and flash floods.”

Guy Platten, ICS Secretary General, said: “There is an urgent need to establish the infrastructure and training required to prepare our seafaring workforce, both in developed and developing countries, to help meet our decarbonisation objectives. This should be done as of today, so they are ready and able to meet the challenges that new green fuels and propulsion technologies will pose and mitigate any potential health and safety risks for ships, communities, the environment and seafarers themselves. This is an opportunity for all so that no-one is left behind. Shipping cannot decarbonise without its workers and the 10-point action plan developed by the Task Force maps out a pathway for how this can be achieved, as our industry continues to navigate towards a decarbonised future.”

IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim, said: “Climate change is a global issue that requires a global response. We must use every tool available to decarbonise the maritime sector. Alternative fuels and green technologies can help meet emission reduction targets. This cannot happen without the people who will be at the heart of implementing shipping’s decarbonisation journey. It is clear that seafarers must have the appropriate training for a smooth transition to a greener future. This is something that will be in sharp focus as IMO works on its comprehensive review of the STCW Training Convention.”

So we get the message. There is a lot to do and the seafarers need to be at the centre of decarbonisation. There is no problem with that as such but as always the devil is in the detail.

The STCW certainly needs updating, but one word I may have missed in my admittedly quick read of the Action Plan was ‘fatigue’. If we really want wonderful new “green” ships of the future that will “mitigate any potential health and safety risks for ships, communities, the environment and seafarers themselves”, we need to reduce fatigue. The obvious, but expensive and politically difficult, way is to increase manning and, especially, require more watchkeeping officers on ships. The other way would be to take the crews off the ships altogether, which as the development of unmanned vessels continues apace is no longer an outlandish idea.

One reservation I have about the Task Force is that it may be pushing an unrealistic and facile view of the possible future to seafarers. Its press release includes a statement by a young ship’s officer. Cleo Bierneza from the Philippines who works on cargo ships. She said: “As seafarers, we see climate change happening. Some voyages get very hot nowadays for crew onboard, and in some places of the world the weather will change extremely [quickly], without warning. It didn’t use to be like that. I would like the maritime industry to reduce our own carbon if we can, so crew can have a more stable climate to work with. I am excited about a Just Transition, because we can make seafaring an even better job and hopefully bring in more women to become seafarers.”

It really good that seafarers like Cleo buy into efforts to halt global warming but her expectations of seeing a Just Transition could end up in disappointment. And actually ships always did get very hot in some places of the world, and the weather could always change very quickly at sea.