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At a symposium on the decarbonisation of shipping held in Antwerp on Tuesday, the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) president Niels Smedegaard spoke in favour of a globally unified approach to carbon emissions management, saying that 'EU only' regional rules could not only hurt Europe's short sea shipping sector, but also deter international traffic from using European ports.

The symposium centred on technical measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, was organised by the Royal Belgian Shipowners' Association, the ECSA and Wartsila, and was attended by ship owners and designers, engine makers, academia, and port authorities.

"We believe that shipping, together with all other industry sectors, must be part of the solution to limit the increase in global temperature, as we clearly are a global contributor to carbon emissions," Smedegaard said.

In fact, according to the 3rd IMO GHG study 2014, maritime transport is responsible for approximately a billion tonnes of carbon dioxied (CO2) annually and about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"The overall goal must be a global agreement for maritime emissions, which the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is moving towards," continued Smedegaard. "The focus now should be on aligning the European Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Regulation with the IMO's, which is set to be formalised in October, 2016."

The words of Smedegaard, presumably, were welcome ones to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) as the ICS recently announced that its member national shipowners' associations have agreed to launch a campaign to persuade the EU to align its regulations on CO2 shipping emissions monitoring with those of IMO.

"Shipping is a global industry requiring global rules, in order to have a truly level playing field," said ICS chairman Esben Poulsson after the ICS annual general meeting (AGM) in Tokyo earlier in the month.