YOU would have thought that having signed off a historic agreement in April to halve greenhouse gas emissions from shipping by 2050 that the International Maritime Organization would be doubling down on climate change measures when its environmental committee meets in London next week.

It is certainly on the agenda, but arguably it’s acid rain and respiratory disease that are still driving the agenda over and above global warming.

For an industry staring down the barrel of the 2020 starting pistol it is perhaps a little worrying that next week’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting is still likely to be dominated by discussion about the sulphur cap and how to enforce it.

Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast is our regulatory expert Anastassios Adamopoulos, who offers his take on what is likely to come out of next week’s crucial meeting.

Meanwhile, David Osler has been in Naples this week, moderating a panel discussion at the Shipping and the Law conference that featured a number of leading Italian and Greek shipowners. Among them was former Union of Greek Shipowners president John Lyras, who cheekily inverted the stereotype of profligate southern European borrowers causing problems for abstemious northern countries and blasted the Germans for making life harder for everybody else.

Required listening, as ever.

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