Διεθνείς και ευρωπαϊκοί κανονισμοί και στρατηγικές για την προστασία του θαλάσσιου περιβάλλοντος από τη δραστηριότητα της ναυτιλίας και ιδιωτικές πρωτοβουλίες: η περίπτωση της Μεσογείου

Λάκου, Σοφία

Master Thesis

Author

Λάκου, Σοφία

Date

2014-11-25

Abstract

The focus on environmental impacts of shipping is constantly increasing, while shifting from marine pollution prevention to wider global issues, such as climate change and air quality. The objective and target is zero material pollution of the marine ecosystems and zero significant oil spills. Maritime accidents that have occurred worldwide have led to the adoption of regulations and conventions by organizations and governments, like the ISM & ISPS code, the Marpol, Solas, the London and the Maritime Labour Convention. The management system standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001 and OHSAS 18001, have been developed to address management practices from the perspective of controlling quality, environmental impacts, energy performance and occupational health hazards. In addition to compliance with all international, regional and local regulations relating to environmental protection, many shipping companies have given considerable attention to environmental issues, identifying aspects of the environment likely to be affected by their operations and seek to minimize their impact on environment. Some of them follow voluntary internal inspections, like the vetting inspections and management evaluation programs like the TMSA program and receive certification from classification societies. Shipping companies try to face environmental challenges such as reducing emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, ecological waste management and waste oils, outputs sea, biological treatment of waste water, saving energy and raw materials and avoiding accidents that will cause environmental contamination. The initiatives and actions of certain shipping companies to help protect the environment of the Mediterranean Sea, such as the use of renewable energy, friendly practices to the environment, environmental awareness and sensitization of staff on environmental issues through proper information and education, prove that companies set aside the increased costs of the new rules and tactics and try to improve their environmental performance. Many ship owners, operators and designers make use of the advances in integrating computer aided design and computational fluid dynamics to improve vessel efficiency, reduce fuel use, and thereby limit not only emissions but costs. Some of them shifted their attention, towards more environmentally friendly vessels. In fact, many are already contemplating the increase of such vessels in their fleet mix. Taking into account the increasingly informed global community, ship owners stressed the importance of pleasing the growing number the environmentally concerned public with transparency and better standards for shipping, since customers are not only interested in price, security and speed, but also in factors such as working conditions, emissions and efficiency. Companies that perform better in these areas seem to be favoured by customers and suppliers. 7 Companies strive to maximize their value by being creative, continually pursuing higher operating efficiency and promoting an open and visible management style that is guided by the highest ethical and social standards. Their goal is to promote and protect the environment by maintaining strict, safe operation and navigation standards and by encouraging their personnel to continually find ways of improving safety, quality and environmental protection so that they can maintain their leading position in the environmental perseverance. The pressure to be cost efficient is high on shipping companies, because for years it has been the cheapest way to transport goods all over the world. The biggest challenge facing the shipping today is maintaining the balance between low operational cost and environmental protection.