Forum on green shipping held on Maritime Day

Officials from home and abroad took part in the Global Forum on Green Shipping in Shanghai on Wednesday and discussed topics ranging from how the environmental impact of shipping can be reduced to how maritime safety and efficiency could be improved.

The forum is part of the celebrations for the 14th China Maritime Day and 70th anniversary of the establishment of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Kitack Lim, secretary general of the IMO, said that the organization has been working on reducing the sulphur content in ship fuel, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and implementing strict ballast water management measures to reduce the industry's impact on the environment.

Zhang Lin, deputy director of the Shanghai Transport Commission, said the city had in June published the 2018-2020 action plan regarding the building of a green port in the Yangtze River Delta region that would use ship fuel with a sulphur content of below 0.1 mass/mass percent, a drop from the 0.5 m/m percent criteria reached in 2016.

Zhang added that the city will provide support to ensure that 50 percent of its ports have onshore electricity for docking ships.

Jin Yongxing, party secretary of Shanghai Maritime University, said that the university has always focused on educating young people care about the sea and promoting international exchanges between maritime organizations in different countries. The university is a member of International Maritime Lectures Association (IMLA) and was selected to host the Maritime Technology Cooperation Center—Asia in 2016.

Zhang Xiaojie, acting director general of International Cooperation Department of Ministry of Transport of China, Andreas Nordseth, director general from Danish maritime authority, and Ye Myint, deputy director general of Myanmar Marine Administration also made speeches at the forum.

To honor the IMO's 70th anniversary, a song titled For a Better Future – it was composed by students from the academies under the IMLA - was performed during the forum.