London: The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has expressed serious concern about the online database of efficiency data for 60,000 individual merchant ships, published by Virgin Atlantic airlines' boss Sir Richard Branson's self styled 'Carbon War Room', ostensibly to allow customers to compare the carbon footprint of the ships they are using to move the 90% of world trade that is transported by sea.?ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe explained: "The Energy Efficiency Design Index, developed by the International Maritime Organization, has been used completely out of context. While the EEDI is an important benchmarking tool to help ships reduce their carbon emissions, it was not created to compare individual ships of different types with each other. Ships have very different construction and safety requirements, depending on their type and trade, which can cause their energy consumption to vary greatly. Also, the IMO methodology has not been approved for use with all types of ship. It is therefore inappropriate for the Carbon War Room to use this methodology to derive scores for completely different classes of ships."?Hinchliffe added: "We have nothing at all against the aviation sector, and have just participated in a joint side event with them at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun. But for Sir Richard to claim that "the shipping industry was doing pretty well nothing" suggests that he has not been well briefed on the tremendous steps that shipping is taking to maintain its position as the most carbon efficient transport mode by far." [09/12/10]
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.
