Between April and May 2021, 116 essays from 22 countries were submitted to the competition. Essays on seafaring of the future, win three young professionals from the Philippines, India, and Denmark a spot in the Global Maritime Forum’s Annual Summit.

The Crew Change Indicator points to a small improvement of the situation and a significant increase in vaccination rates, nonetheless many of the challenges the industry has been facing in repatriating and sourcing crew still remain.

Signatories of the Call to Action for Shipping Decarbonization urge world leaders to align shipping with the Paris Agreement temperature goal. The private sector is already taking important steps to decarbonize global supply chains. Now governments must deliver the policies that will supercharge the transition and make zero emission shipping the default choice by 2030.

Mexico’s potential for renewable energy generation, the location of its ports on busy shipping routes, and strong trading relations make the country well suited as a zero-carbon shipping fuel hub. Effective regulation could make such fuels commercially viable within the decade.

Still governments and ports are placing stricter crew change requirements. For the first time ship managers report seafarer shortages.

The first vaccination data from the Neptune Declaration Crew Change Indicator shows that only 15.3% of seafarers are vaccinated. Figures from ten top ship managers confirm that the crew change crisis continues to increase.

The Global Maritime Forum will convene 200 senior leaders for its Annual Summit 2021 in London in late October. Participants will work together on collaborative solutions for systemic challenges such as the decarbonization of shipping, and explore avenues to improve workforce wellbeing and diversity, as well as other environmental, social and governance issues.

The Global Maritime Forum’s Board of Directors has appointed Johannah Christensen as Chief Executive Officer and expanded the organization’s executive management team.

Dire development driven by the continued rise in Covid-19 cases and the spread of new variants in major seafaring nations, leading to increased government restrictions in important crew change hubs, and limited opportunity to perform crew changes, especially in Asia. No signs of relief as seafarers continue to have limited access to vaccines.

Country’s location, economic development and vast renewable energy sources make it well suited to be a hub for green maritime fuel.