Being agile and talented are not enough for an entrepreneur in maritime. A degree of commercial shrewdness is vital, plus an ability to see the long-term vision. A two-year time horizon will not cut it

Setting up as a shipping alt lender is easy. Round up some Cass buddies, rent desk space, raise a couple of hundred million bucks and farm it out to owners who cannot borrow elsewhere, right? Wrong

A post-Covid surge in start-ups is expected, fuelled by abundant tech funding and targeting an ample supply of industry problems with their innovative solutions. But is the shipping industry ready to open the door to new ideas and provide the collaboration needed to scale these entrepreneurial talents beyond the quickly burned seed capital stages? 

Shipping’s image problem is not a new issue, but the pandemic has exposed the industry’s invisible status at a political level and the lack of understanding among the general public and mainstream media. That is a problem, but it is one of the industry’s own making having opted to operate in the shadows for years. Joining the podcast this week is Sabrina Chao, the new president of BIMCO, who has pledged that the task of making shipping’s voice better heard by the outside world will be at the top of her agenda over the next two years.

Shipping experts are calling for serious commitment on sustainability ‘NOW’ before it’s too late. What’s holding us back? Is the answer only to be found in zero carbon fuels, in which case how many years will it be until the right fuel or fuels have been trialled and tested under all conditions? What can be done while all this is going on, to reduce if not eliminate harmful emissions? And what has shipping discovered from several years of digitalisation to move us in the right direction? Roger Strevens, vice-president of global sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, explains why reducing carbon intensity by one-third since 2008 is not enough

The IMO’s environmental negotiators meet next week with a priority to finalise short-term emissions measures. But their meeting is also the likely beginning of bigger and more difficult discussions for shipping’s future. Environmental Defense Fund Europe international climate director Aoife O’Leary talks to Lloyd’s List about what we should expect for the rest of this year and how a market-based measure should come in

‘How shipping pollutes the planet, avoids taxes, dodges regulations, and gets away with it’ — is the eye-catching strapline to the recent documentary Black Trail which has caused a stir in shipping circles. The film may not have taught us anything new about emissions, policy-making or the business of shipping, but seeing an outsider’s view of shipping on display offers a revealing, and worrying, insight into how the industry is being portrayed. This week’s podcast features the two lead journalists behind the film Zeynep Sentek, and Craig Shaw.