The European Green Deal (EGD) adopted in December 2019 seeks to facilitate the transition of the EU towards a climate-neutral continent and a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy by 2050. In addition to a set of objectives, it is also a policy program that will affect the policy landscape, by driving the development of new directives and regulation, and the amendment of existing ones. In order to facilitate a transition of EU society to better protect the marine environment, decision making and implementation processes within marine governance will need to be improved to develop and implement measures through which EGD marine protection objectives will be achieved.
The Horizon Europe PERMAGOV project aims to improve the implementation and performance of EU marine policies to reach the goals set in the EGD. The PERMAGOV project focuses on four issue areas, so-called regime complexes: Maritime Transport, Marine Energy, Marine Life and Marine Plastics. Within each regime complex, 2 to 3 case studies are used to explore and analyse how governance arrangements are emerging and changing and improving their performance through the EGD. These case studies span three European Seas, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the North East Atlantic.
We introduce a decision support tool for liner shipping companies to optimally determine the sailing speed and needed fleet for a global network. As a novelty we incorporate cargo routing decisions with tight transit time restrictions on each container such that we get a realistic picture of the utilization of the network. Furthermore, we show that it is possible to extend the model to include optimal time scheduling decisions such that the time associated with transshipments is also reflected accurately. To solve the speed optimization problem we propose an exact algorithm based on Benders decomposition and column generation that exploits the separability of the problem. Computational results show that the method is applicable to liner shipping networks of realistic size and that it is important to incorporate cargo routing decisions when optimizing speed.
This report provides public recommendations for waterborne transport to West Coast of Norway, with the focus on the specified transport system in use case A in the AEGIS project. The complete background for this report is only achieved by reading all the other deliverables related to the use case, however these are confidential. Therefore, it is recommended to read the ICMASS 2022 paper "Development of an advanced, efficient and green intermodal system with autonomous inland and short sea shipping – AEGIS"1 to get a better overview of the project and specifically use case A. The transport system of use case A consists of mother vessel(s) together with one or more daughter vessels, connected by several ports. The mother vessel transports containers from Rotterdam via Hitra Kysthavn and into ports in the Trondheimsfjorden. The rationale for this use case is to enable a more flexible and cost-efficient waterborne transport solution for fjords and smaller ports.
Autonomous surface vessels comprise complex automated systems with advanced onboard sensors. These help establish situation awareness and perform many of the complex tasks required for safe navigation. However, situations occur that require assistance by a human proxy. If not physically present on board, information digestion and sharing between human and machine become crucial to maintain safe operation. This paper addresses the co-design of on-board systems and a Remote Control Centre (RCC). Using the international regulations on watch-keeping (STCW) as a basis, the paper discuss how an autonomous system is designed to meet the STCW requirements. It is discussed how the autonomous system is made aware of the state of the vessel, its surroundings, on-board defects or navigational challenges and shared with the RCC in a collaborating system perspective.
A fuel levy is one of the market-based measures (MBMs) currently under consideration at the International Maritime Organization. MBMs have been proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the shipping sector and reduce its emissions. This paper analyses the economic and environmental implications of two types of levy on shipping bunker fuels by means of an analytical model built on the cobweb theorem. A unit-tax per ton of fuel and an ad-valorem tax, enforced as a percentage of fuel prices, are examined. In both cases, a speed and fuel-consumption reduction equivalent to an improvement in the energy efficiency of the sector would be expected as a result of the regulation enforcement. The speed reduction in the unit-tax case depends on fuel prices and the tax amount, whereas in the ad-valorem case it relies upon the enforced tax percentage.
Both schemes lead to industry profit decline, the extent of which depend on the structure of the levy and market conditions. Since there is concern that the costs resulting from the policy will be passed from shipping companies to their customers along the supply chain, the paper dwells on how the costs arising from the enforcement of the levy will be actually allocated between ship-owners and operators, and cargo-owners. In a market characterised by high freight rates and with no or limited excess capacity, a higher percentage of the total tax amount is transferred from ship-owners to shippers. In case of a recession the opposite happens.
Coastal communities have ideas and plans on how to redirect the blue economy to
support thriving societies, but how can EU Member States better support bottom-up
transitions?
This is a policy brief included in D5.3 of EmpowerUs.
The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has for four decades been considered by many to be one of the most important legislative achievements of international law. It is revered as a “constitution of the oceans”, providing the legal framework for the governance of the oceans. This volume explores how the UNCLOS is functioning in various complex settings, how it adapts to new, emerging developments, as well as how it interacts with other regulations, both within the law of the sea regime and outside. Engaging in themes such as law and order at sea, UNCLOS' interaction with human rights and the role of private actors, the book raises complex questions in the application, understanding, and enforcement of the convention and how it can be envisaged, interpreted, and used in a dynamic world. The volume also raises methodological questions, the answers to which may enhance the predictability and coherence of the law under UNCLOS and thus secure its role as the predominant and relevant system for legal governance at sea for many decades to come. As a contribution to ensuring the future relevance of UNCLOS, the book will be a valuable resource for scholars, diplomats, judges and other practitioners who are working with and interpreting the law of the sea and related issues of maritime law, migration law, human rights law and humanitarian law.
Knowledge of ecosystem services (ES) and the benefits provided by offshore marine areas, including the welfare impacts from the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) is still limited. In the present study we evaluated benefits from ES, citizens' willingness-to-pay for potential changes in the provision of ES, and welfare losses to citizens due to restrictions on economic activities from establishing new offshore MPAs in Latvian waters. The scenarios for the economic valuation were based on analyzing the supply of ES from the protected marine habitats, showing changes in the ES supply in policy relevant scenarios of the MPA size. Our study evaluates a wide array of ES delivered by offshore protected habitats and reveals that citizens' willingness-to-pay for preserving habitats and ES supply exceeds their welfare losses from restrictions in economic activities. Our approach supports the prioritization of habitat types according to their contribution to ES supply and benefits for citizens. The analysis can be complemented with spatial data regarding the distribution of habitats, providing an opportunity to identify areas with the highest ES benefits to support marine protection and spatial planning.
The problem of marine litter represents a significant global challenge and illustrates the harmful consequences of an economic model that is based on disposability. The seafood sector is not only among the culprits, but is also among the most affected by this threat to the marine environment. Earlier research has pointed to fishing gear take-back schemes as a measure to mitigate the problem, and policymakers have embraced the idea. The Norwegian scheme for beverage containers has been hailed as a benchmark for the application of Extended Producer Responsibility. Through the lens of business ecosystems, we draw parallels between the existing take-back scheme for beverage containers and the latent system for fishing gear to answer the question: “What would it take to establish a take-back scheme for fishing gear?” We elaborate upon four factors that are well established for beverage container take-back schemes, but lacking or unclear in the case of fishing gear: (i) politico-institutional support, (ii) the system's value proposition, (iii) the system integrator, and (iv) operational factors (i.e., a network of collection points and procedures, and material variety and complexity). Our findings highlight that when innovations are not based on the usual market mechanisms, unconventional conceptualizations of value itself and how value is mapped and distributed are required. Meaningful engagement of the private sector depends upon either explicit articulation of value capture or policy instruments to enforce responsibility; both are currently either unclear or lacking in the context of fishing gear.
Background:
The third edition of the International Medical Guide for Ships (IMGS) was published in 2007 and supported a main principle of the newly adopted International Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006: to ensure that seafarers are given health protection and medical care as comparable as possible to that which is available to workers ashore. In 2021, the revisions and drafting of the fourth edition of the IMGS began. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, it was decided that a stakeholder study was necessary to ascertain the usefulness and practicality of the guide as well as provide input for which new topics to include.
Materials and methods:
The study applied data triangulation, with respondents from a geographically
broad sample of the International Maritime Organization‘s five regional areas of the world. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Results:
The results show that the IMGS is widely known and used among persons involved in medical care on board ships, but the IMGS is not as practical as stakeholders would wish it to be. For the guide to be useful, it must be ensured that telemedical advice information is included and if possible, ensure there is one single and global medical guide. Also, there is a need for new medical information, and respondents pointed to pandemic information, medicines list, medical chest, mental health issues, a women’s section, updated cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions, human immune defect virus information (human immune defect-virus) and information on how seafarers may self-monitor and be monitored on board in relation to chronic diseases.
Conclusions:
Respondents understand a medicine chest on board is mandatory according to the MLC 2006, 98% are familiar with its content, and 86% use the IMGS.