The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Wake-up call for maritime safety
Fenna van de Merwe, principal consultant at DNV, joins Lloyd’s List Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton to look at digitalisation, decarbonisation and the need for a reassessment of the safety risks they pose in this special edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast
The gaps between digital technologies and safety, and between fuels and fuel technologies and safety, have led to DNV analysing the new system complexity
DIGITALISATION and decarbonisation are the biggest challenges facing the shipping industry over the next decade and beyond. While there is some concern about the pace of progress, there is a greater concern about how the human element fits into these challenges and about the spectrum of behaviours that come under the ‘safety’ banner.
The gaps between digital technologies and safety, and between fuels and fuel technologies and safety, have led to DNV analysing the new system complexity brought to the industry by digitalisation.
The new analysis, entitled Closing the Safety Gap in an Era of Transformation, focuses on how humans must work with technology to improve levels of safety, and how safety hurdles associated with decarbonisation can be overcome.
“New technology is being added at an incredibly rapid pace and that calls for putting safety into a different light,” says Ms van de Merwe. “Safety is not an add-on; it can enable the industry to succeed in achieving a more digitally smart and carbon-neutral maritime future.”
DNV is calling on the maritime industry to look at safety as part of the package of measures that will help to meet our visions. “As the industry has become more mature in its thinking, we are seeing a greater need to look at the interaction between the human element and technology,” she states.
In this podcast, DNV explores shipping’s ability to recognise and manage the safety risks associated with digitalisation and decarbonisation. “These risks are not new but shipping needs to address them now so we are best prepared to meet these major challenges,” Ms van de Merwe concludes.
Are shipping’s stakeholders willing to invest in safety or is it seen as a cost issue? Can the industry become fully digital and carbon-neutral without deeply embedding safety into the ecosystem? What is the best balance between the human element and autonomy? This podcast raises questions developed more fully in the DNV white paper.
Download DNV’s white paper Closing the Safety Gap in an Era of Transformation here.