Panel Discussion: Re-thinking Strategies, Re-charting the Course
Dr George D. Pateras, President of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping and Deputy Chairman of Contships Management Inc., gave the example of the car industry, which is not required to reduce its carbon footprint. Shipping has to come up with new technologies and new fuels! In passenger ships, they decided to go Green and opted for hydrogen. From coal to oil, it took 8-10 years. Now we have 15 years and this is because the alternative does not yet exist. There is a huge hype about the environment, but greenwashing is also at play. If we keep on burning the fuel that we currently burn more effectively, we may achieve lower emissions. Realism and political agreement are necessary to achieve the goals. Optimising the routing of ferryboats has brought about very positive results (10% saving in fuel!).
