The maritime industry recognizes the daily challenges of seafarers. However, organizations can’t cover all eventualities. Ship-visiting charities support seafarers providing material help along with friendly warmth.

Considering the shortage of diversity in the maritime industry, Katherine Langworthy, one of finalists of the Future Maritime Leaders essay competition, argues that to solve the imbalance, organizations should attract more young professionals who are going to contribute to a more sustainable world.

Collaboration between governments and industry is crucial to make new green technologies competitive alternatives to fossil fuels.

The global maritime industry should take collective action to increase its human rights performance and get human rights onboard on a par with environmental and governance issues.

Emissions from shipping could grow by 250% by 2050 if no action is taken. Halving shipping’s emissions by 2050 could require $1.2 trillion in investment. But the scale of this challenge could be big enough to spur decarbonization across other sectors, too.

To make the decarbonization of the maritime shipping sector successful, the coming three decades will need to see a fundamental shift towards zero carbon energy sources. This implies a need for significant investments into new fuel production, supply chains, and a new or retrofitted fleet.

It has been over 300 years since the maritime industry used crowd-solving in a meaningful way. The technology to run a challenge has improved dramatically in that time and has recently been used successfully in other industries by some of the largest organizations in the world.  Can 2020 be the year that our industry applies this powerful process to obtain dramatic results on our most important problems?

Global Value Chains are greatly boosting the productivity and incomes in both developed and developing countries, shows the World Bank’s latest World Development Report. But we need to make sure we create the conditions for inclusive and sustainable development.

The next wave of the maritime industry’s young talent overwhelmingly supports adopting clean and sustainable business practices, moving towards the digital age, improving conditions and opportunities for workers and increasing industry resilience and cooperation in the face of tumultuous geopolitics.

Iorliam Simon Tersoo, a Maritime Safety Officer from Nigeria and winner of the Future Maritime Leaders essay competition, addresses the need for preparing the next generation of seafarers to a more digitalized future due to the automation of the maritime industry.