For shipping in Sharm El Sheikh
A new action plan, launched at COP 27 by United Nations organisations, shipowners and trade unions, makes recommendations for improving the skills of seafarers to achieve the decarbonisation goals of the maritime transport industry.
The plan responds to the findings of new research. The three emission reduction scenarios evaluated in the research highlight the need to start putting the training infrastructure in place to ensure that hundreds of thousands of the world's nearly two million seafarers are qualified during the transition. The findings also suggest that the lack of certainty about alternative fuel options is having ripple effects on seafaring education.
The research was conducted by the maritime consultancy firm DNV and commissioned by the Maritime Just Transition Task Force Secretariat. The recommendations include a strengthening of global training standards, a priority approach to health and safety and the establishment of national advisory councils for maritime skills.
Stephen Cotton, secretary general of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF): “All three scenarios identified by DNV require some form of workforce retraining. The good news is that seafarers are prepared and willing to be part of this transition. But the crews want to know if the fuels they are managing are really safe and if the industry has already planned and defined training courses to improve their skills." (sh)