Of course there are viable alternative routes. But simultaneous widespread disruption would be a strain on much of the shipping industry, not to mention the global economy

The EU Emissions Trading System is going to be difficult and expensive for shipping. It is without doubt flawed and there are many questions to be answered, but it will start to sift those who have been genuinely charting a new course from those who have been secretly hoping all this will just go away

If the West wants to up the ante, increasing the scrutiny of attestation documents is a no-brainer. The proposal that the Danes would inspect Russian tankers would need to be part of a wider push to leverage choke points

Food for thought aplenty at the annual Eisbein celebrations and in German shipowners’ boardrooms amid numerous industry challenges ahead. But the illustrious shipping nation is well versed in adversity

Our lifetimes may never again see an era in which sailing vessels from A to B generates returns that make Gates, Zuckerberg and Bezos envious

Everyone with a well-paid desk job in white-collar shipping services should be properly grateful to the workforce that keeps the industry moving

More Russian oil than ever before is being carried on sanctions-busting tankers exploiting regulatory loopholes. The entire scheme of sanctions stands or falls by an attestation mechanism that patently isn’t working

Alexander Saverys’ perspective for tanker shipping is built around a business model that is radically different to the one Fredriksen exemplifies

For the IMO’s proceedings to represent anything more than a drinks reception accompanied by a token press release, shipping’s contribution to the fight for a better environment needs to be stepped up

There is a growing realisation in shipping that nebulous net zero pledges are starting to require action and investment, and will be harder to achieve than first thought. The divide between those who can and can’t be relied upon is widening

Maersk is to be applauded for its ambition. But for mass adoption of methanol fuel to make environmental sense, the molecule shipping uses must be truly green — and there is plenty to suggest it won’t be

Britain’s schools are crumbling. So is UK maritime policy

For those seeking guidance on what to do next, the MEPC80 targets may have been too weak a signal

The dark fleet may be coming out of the shadows, but the cloud it casts over the rest of the industry is not going anywhere

Until now, shipping has always found a workaround to restrictions on using this key waterway. But it won’t be able to do so indefinitely

The embattled country has the moral high ground in its fight with Russia. By declaring commercial shipping a valid military target, it abdicates a portion of it

EVs have gone way beyond ‘first kid on the block with a Tesla’ bragging rights and production volumes will increase exponentially. We need to be sure ships can carry them safely

Blowing up neutral shipping is in nobody’s best interest. Not even Moscow’s

If the industry is to have confidence in the Suez Canal Authority’s pilotage service, extensive retraining and assessment of English proficiency may be required

The IMO’s loosely worded climate targets fall short of keeping shipping aligned with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement temperature goal, but they are closer than most expected and keep alive the prospect of global technical and economic measures to come that could yet radically reduce the industry’s carbon output

If China gets its way, fragmented regionalism will replace the United Nations specialist agency as the rule maker. That is not good for world trade and not good for shipping, either

Even if you’re as tired of environmental stuff as Tor Olav Trøim, you’ll soon find out that the more polluting you are, the more it is going to cost you to borrow

Carriers will welcome the six-year settlement between port employers and dock worker representatives announced this week. But it’s time to move on from ritualised confrontations twice in every decade

Former US presidential contender John Kerry used a speech at Nor-Shipping to compare the industry’s fuel transition to the Allied invasion of Normandy. When a decorated Vietnam veteran uses military metaphors, pay attention

Our industry is providing a second front without the shooting. Let the vice tighten slowly but surely

Sanctions are only going to get more extensive. The past week shows that everybody in the industry — from Ulaanbaatar to the outskirts of Bristol — would benefit from greater situation awareness

The climate change activists were not parading around Dubai’s convention centre calling shipping to account: There was no point. Shipping has lost the radical edge that challenges, confronts and contests

When 53 seafarers can be taken hostage in the space of a week and it barely causes a ripple in the international news, it is time for the shipping industry to address why it all too often seen as an ‘easy’ target

Sanctions efforts have so far been unrolled more by way of moral suasion and threatened consequences rather than active enforcement. But that is likely to change shortly

As long as shipping disputes are by default resolved under English law in English courts, domestic firms have an obvious head start

Hundreds of substandard, unclassed, uninsured vessels are routinely hauling Russian oil internationally while avoiding any serious oversight, so why are governments looking the other way and pretending the dark fleet is invisible?

Shipping’s climate negotiations are a high stakes game of poker, where governments will be looking to make deals in exchange for compromises. It makes little strategic sense to show your hand this early in the game, but real progress can be achieved in the next three months