Addressing the gap between what environmentally sensitive officials and what insurers actually fear
 While feminism's success in dominating western personnel departments is impressive, its most active salient has been advancing the interests of the Deep State through environmentalism in world shipping through regulatory expansion.
More than 90 per cent of the goods traded internationally are shipped by sea, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with maritime trade volumes set to triple by 2050. About 60 per cent of those goods – everything from appliances to imported fruit – are packed in containers, while commodities such as oil or grain are stored in the hulls of ships.
Environmentalists promote a worry list, claiming that maritime trade routes "can be severely impacted by extreme weather, forcing vessels to adjust planned routes to minimise disruption or delays and, in the worst-case scenario, causing loss of cargo or damage to the ship itself.
"In one year alone, some 3,000 containers are said to have been lost overboard, and Bloomberg estimated that 1,000 had already been lost to the sea within the first four months of 2021. Meanwhile, bad weather accounted for one in five ship losses in 2019, according to German marine insurers Allianz."
But what of it?
In this year's Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE’s (AGCS) Safety & Shipping Review 2022, maritime losses are lower than ever. On the whole, shipping safety has much improved in recent years from an insurers point of view, but with better performance come new risks they have not faced before. But far from citing perils on the environmental worry list, marine insurers cite the risks arrising from the flood of regulations and rocketing compliance costs.
So while environmentalists point to what scarifying traditional losses they can find, these are mostly are due to the average size of ships today (double that of a decade ago), which in terms of dollar loss, magnifies the extent of a marine casualties when they do occur.
To be fair, there are more shipboard fires than there were. But that is because there are more eco-friendly electric cars in transit with their massive fire-prone lithium-ion batteries. Couple that with a widespread temptatiion to misdeclare hazmat consignments as perfectly safe, and the risk of fire afloat grows.
So how do new Allianz statistics sit with statements from Natasha Brown, acting head, public information services, at the UN's International Maritime Organisation when she says "climate change has led to more frequent extreme weather events, threatening livelihoods, particularly in vulnerable communities. The maritime sector needs to be aware of increased risks to shipping and ports from more intense storms"?
Little of a specific nature arises from a Google search for increases in incident of extreme weather, and nothing comes to mind to this reporter who has been covering waterfronts of the world since 1968. All Google comes up with is that "many climate scientists" say so.
While the world bureaucracies push climate change as they thing to fear, insurers are more freightened of the costs of the mandates and penalties for failing to comply with rules and regulations.
“Climate change has led to more frequent extreme weather events, threatening livelihoods, particularly in vulnerable communities. The maritime sector needs to be aware of increased risks to shipping and ports from more intense storms,” said Natasha Brown, acting head, public information services, at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
Ms Brown, citing fears of the High Meadows Environmental Institute, says extreme weather will be worse, as warmer ocean temperatures and higher sea levels caused by climate change increase the intensity and impacts of hurricanes and tropical storms. Indeed, she says, the proportion of Category 3 to 5 cyclones has grown by about five per cent per decade since 1979.
‘’The maritime sector needs to be aware of increased risks to shipping and ports from more intense storms,’’ she says.
Said Edwin Magesh, general manager, expertise services at Wartsila Energy, that lobbies for the use of alternate fuel: "Disruptions due to extreme weather can cause a range of issues, including missed port calls and delayed estimated time of arrivals, meaning you have to change schedules for the discharging and loading up of cargoes, among other issues."
Quite apart from such statements being pockmarked with "cans, coulds mights" and "maybes", such enviromental fears do not make is on the list of risks which concern the marine underwriting community.
Said Allianz: “Previously, a wreck might have been left in-situ if it posed no danger to navigation. Now, authorities want wrecks removed and the marine environment restored, irrespective of cost,” said Rahul Khanna, Allianz's chief marine risk consultant. Too often, what should be a manageable incident on a large vessel can end in a total loss, he said.
Salvage is a growing concern, he said. "Environmental concerns are contributing to rising salvage and wreck removal costs as shipowners and insurers are expected to go the extra mile to protect the environment and local economy.”
The Allianz report also points out that the losses last year have to be set against the estimated 130,000 ships in the global fleet today; 30 years ago, the global fleet comprised only around 80,000 vessels. Allianz believes that this progress reflects the increased focus on safety measures over time through training and safety programmes, improved ship design, technology and regulation.
Thus, legitimate fears of costs arising from shipboard incidents at sea has far less to do with what the growing and increasingly feminised environmental bureaucracy is worried about and more to do with the very real risks posed by the bureaucrats themselves.
It would also be unwise - as many do - to think that corporate interests are aligned with cost-cutting as one might think they would be. Not at all. Moreover, there is good reason to think that major corporations benefit from the rising tide of regulation in that it increases compliance costs beyond the means of smaller rival shipping lines who are unable to sustain themselves financially in this unsustainable world of sustainability. A situation which allows the biggest fish to devour the smaller. |
