Shipping sanctions lawyers have already received several concerned calls from industry officials grappling with the prospect of an EU port ban for vessels thought to have engaged in deceptive ship-to-ship transfers or deliberately switched off their Automatic Identification System

Nor-Shipping has exposed the gap between what the industry is saying and what it is doing about decarbonisation in the short term. Opting to focus on future fuels and regulatory ambition, much of the debate has shied away from tackling the overwhelming lack of credible short-term, science-based targets attributed to the efficiency plans being showcased

Draft text of new sanctions reveals that EU states will ban ships deemed by member states to have engaged in deceptive ship-to-ship transfers of Russia origin oil or deliberately switching off AIS signals

Increasingly positive signals from within the International Maritime Organization and European Union suggest that a deal could yet be brokered to align EU decarbonisation instruments with the IMO’s measures, if sufficiently robust agreements are met

Flawed efficiency projects such as CII have sparked a wholesale review of how regulation is developed. A more iterative and holistic approach that factors in the expectation of unintended commercial consequences now needs to be more rigorously embraced

In the absence of any certainty regarding fuel availability, the shipping industry is laying down a multi-billion-dollar zero-carbon hedge bet — yet in the meantime, its decarbonisation pledges and targets are looking increasingly thin