The purpose of the circumnavigation (the One Ocean Expedition) and One Ocean Week is to increase awareness and knowledge about the ocean's importance in securing a sustainable future. As you know, ten Odfjell'ers were among the chosen ones to accompany the crew for the five day leg between Ishigaki and Manila, coming back with new knowledge and a once-in-a-lifetime experience under their belts. Many of the participants reunited during the One Ocean Week, and got to share memories and discuss how they've used the experience after the return home.
One Ocean’s overreaching objective has been to put knowledge into action by bringing together committed people from around the world, including policymakers, scholars, entrepreneurs, explorers, and venture capitalists.
Among the speakers of the One Ocean week were Manager Competence Development Karianne Grønseth and CEO Harald Fotland. Grønseth took part in a group discussion with the Bergen Shipowners' Association and two maritime schools, covering future recruitment and competence development for the maritime industry - how we can ensure that the maritime industry remains an attractive career choice, and that they get the best training.
On the subject of “How to transform shipping towards zero emissions”, Fotland was on stage at the main conference, where he addressed the decarbonization dilemma in deep-sea shipping:
“As of today, we simply don’t have enough green energy to support the transition to alternative fuels. It's challenging to justify using 54% of the world's renewable energy to solve a problem that accounts for only 2.0% of the total.”
The overarching theme of Fotland’s presentation was clear: we must continue to work on energy efficiency by adding new technologies to the toolbox, such as wind assisted propulsion, hull lubrication, heat recovery concepts, new engine configurations, fuel cell technologies, and novel ship designs. Most of these technologies are already in use; we do not need to wait for them. (Click here to download a copy of the presentation.)
In the shipping session, our CEO was joined by Roger Strevens, VP Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Heidi Wolden, CEO of Norled, and Siv Remøy-Vangen, CEO of Norwegian Electric System. Following their presentations, the speakers were brought together on stage for a panel discussion on the topic of Barriers and Prospects.
When asked what he saw as the biggest barrier to zero emissions today, Fotland responded:
“The biggest frustration and bottleneck of today is that the focus on crispy green solutions completely overshadows the focus on, and need for, energy efficiency solutions.”
Although the speakers had different perspectives on the path to zero emission, they all agreed on one point: It’s not technology that’s stopping us. We need closer collaboration across the board, and between the industry and regulators. We need a solid political framework and effective, long-term incentives. If not, the progress towards zero emissions will slow down. This challenge is not something any one company can do by itself, we need to collaborate and seek partnerships, relationships – the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
