INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Shipping Chairman, Spyros Polemis told a meeting of government ministers representing the world's major economies that switching cargo to ships was best way of cutting global CO2 emissions.
Mr Polemis was speaking at a meeting of the world’s transport ministers in Leipzig, held under the auspices of the OECD International Transport Forum, on the theme of transport and climate change.
The ICS Chairman participated with senior representatives of other transport sectors. He emphasised that although shipping fully accepted the need to reduce ships’ fuel consumption and its CO2 emissions, shipping was already by far the most carbon efficient form of commercial transport, and that the world’s total carbon emissions would actually be reduced by transporting more maritime cargo by sea. The ICS Chairman also stressed the industry’s confidence in the ability of IMO to develop solutions for reducing ships’ CO2 emissions within a global framework.