World Maritime Day And the Challenge of Climate Change

Source: All Africa

Lagos — THE 2009 edition of the World Maritime Day will be celebrated at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) on Thursday, 24 September 2009 with the theme; "Climate change: a challenge for IMO too!"

Many maritime organisations and unions will hold special activities and events ranging from symposiums to luncheons to celebrate this day.

The event's date varies by year and country but it is always on the last week of September. The day, which is a global observance and not a public holiday, is used to focus attention on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and the marine environment and to emphasise a particular aspect of IMO's work.

The Nigerian maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has concluded arrangements to hold a global warming workshop in Abuja, the federal capital territory.

The workshop, with the theme, Challenges and Consequences of Climate Change in Nigeria, is scheduled to hold before the end of the month as part of activities to mark the world maritime day.

World Maritime Day was first held on March 17, 1978 to mark the date of the IMO Convention's entry into force in 1958. At that time, the organization had 21 member states. It now has about 167 member states and three associate members.

The United Nations (UN), through IMO, created World Maritime Day to celebrate the international maritime industry's contribution towards the world's economy, especially in shipping.

Over the last few years, there has been a major surge in the spread of public understanding on the subject of climate change, particularly in respect of human actions being a cause for changes in the earth's climate system.

However, this increase in awareness has not yet translated into action at the global level to bring about a reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), the increased concentration of which has now increasingly affected the earth's climate.

IMO, which original name, was the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO), but was changed in 1982 to IMO, has established an ambitious but achievable action plan to address GHG emissions from international shipping and is now working towards a robust regime that will regulate shipping at the global level and contribute to the deceleration of climate change.

The Organization adopted "Climate change - a challenge for IMO too" as the theme for the 2009 World Maritime Day, in recognition of the intense focus this topic is receiving within IMO this year.

This also include the expected agreement by IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in July 2009, of a package of technical and operational measures providing for an Energy Efficiency Design Index for new ships; a Ship Energy Management Plan for new and existing ships; and an Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator for existing ships.

The Committee will also give further consideration to market-based measures and decide on the way forward.

In a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from ships engaged in international trade by IMO, it was estimated that ships engaged in international trade in 2007 contributed about 2.7 per cent of the world's anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

It also states that emission reductions are feasible through technical and operational measures as well as through the introduction of market-based reduction mechanisms.

In the absence of global policies to control greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, the emissions may increase by between 150 and 250 percent by the year 2050 due to the expected continued growth in international seaborne trade.

Observing the long list of potential impacts, Former USA President Bill Clinton dentified climate change as "the world's biggest worry."

At the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Clinton said, "Climate change is the only thing that I believe has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilisation as we know it, and make a lot of the other efforts that we're making irrelevant and impossible."

Negative consequences are beginning to emerge from climate change as some observers have point to the increasing number of severe storms, floods, and heat waves in recent years as indicators of changing climatic conditions.

According to a report published by the European Commission, climate change already accounts for around 160,000 deaths a year worldwide.

However, the vast majority of related scientific research confirms a direct relationship between human activity, the rising levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, and climate change in the form of global warming, defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth.

As the Earth gets hotter, disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods are getting more frequent.

The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected that by 2020, between 75 to 250 million people in Africa would suffer from water stress as a consequence of climate change. In some countries of Africa agricultural yields are likely to decline by 50 percent by the same year.

According to experts, there is an urgent need to reduce the emissions of GHGs particularly in the developed countries, as clearly laid down in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) if the harmful impacts of climate change and the major disruptions in stability and peace that may occur as a result would be avoided.

It was gathered that large insurance firms have already observed the financial impacts of a warming climate.

Munich Re reported that the economic cost of natural catastrophes has risen seven-fold and insured losses have increased 16-fold since 1960.

Dramatic increases in economic costs were clearly visible in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane season. The damage of that year's devastating hurricanes - including Hurricane Katrina - cost insurers around $60 billion more than double any previous year.

Meanwhile, the Zurich-based reinsurance company, Swiss Re, has found that losses from natural disasters are doubling approximately every ten years, saying If this trend continues, losses are likely to reach up to $150 billion in ten years.

Apart from the financial and insurance sectors, people in developing countries also among those to feel the heat of climate change, which will further reduce access to drinking water, negatively affect the health of those living in poverty, and pose a threat to food security in many countries.