COMMENT: No one saw this coming, writes Charles Haine. Apart from the UK Government’s own National Risk Register of 2017, which placed an influenza pandemic equal fourth, alongside severe weather (but much higher impact), as one of the highest likelihood risks facing society before 2022.
We’re not in three months, yet here we are hovering over the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys again. Having received a massive jolt to the system, we will walk out of a battered economic landscape with a rebooted appreciation of key workers (who just weeks before were cruelly labelled unskilled), human contact and the luxuries we may no longer be able to afford.
That might deliver a second deadly blow to the retailers that are hanging on. The ripples will be felt in the maritime sector for quite a while. The key factor in surviving a crisis is correct decision-making at the right time.
Most authorities had already declared a state of ‘climate emergency’ so it’s at formative moments like this where we can select the best opportunities on offer.
With our brains and wallets recalibrated, we can choose to support companies, services and products that truly add-value to society. Those that already embedded real sustainability performance pre-COVID-19 will be better placed than the greenwashers and those that refused to recognise natural life-support systems and pollution-avoidance in their activities.
The judiciary even recognised this. In February, several courts and councils bucked the growth trend, ruling against the incongruous expansion of airports while a binding international agreement to keep global warming to within +1.5⁰C is in place.
Now we have experienced systemic crash, surely, we are wider-eyed in our understanding of how important ‘quality of life’ is, what clean air smells like, and that preparedness is the best solution for breakdown.
I don’t know about you, but my appetite for a healthier lifestyle and environment has grown. Allowing the ‘blue economy’ to thrive would be a good start. Originally, 2020 was going to be an ‘ocean super year’ before the spiky virus decimated the World Ocean Summit, UN Ocean Summit, IAPH World Ports’ Conference, TOC, and the conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity. COP26 Glasgow hangs in the balance.
The incredible contributions that ocean-based industries make to reducing and sequestering carbon emissions, helping communities adapt to the effects of a changing climate while providing employment that protects ocean life are the pillars in a sustainable blue economy.
The well-being of small island states, fisheries and aquaculture, energy generation, shipping and port services, biotech, sea defence, dredging for aggregates, and tourism and recreation all contribute handsomely.
Two-thirds of the economic value generated relies on the health of the oceans, yet UNDP quantifies unsustainable practices such as overfishing to cause economic loss of US$83bn every year and coastal hypoxia up to around US$800bn. Damage from invasive species weighs in at US$100 bn and damage from ocean plastics US$13bn.
Even more staggering is the impact of ocean acidification from climate change. The cost: another US$1.2 trillion – a year – by 2100. Shipping and ports are about to become interconnected with ocean-based industries such as wind power, wave/tidal energy and green fuels. The OECD puts value from the blue economy at US$3 tr and 40 million employed by 2030.
There will be less of it around, so it won’t be long before we see investors sense-checking ‘ocean impact’ alongside climate, sustainability and governance factors prior to releasing their money. The global pandemic might just push us into the kind of collaboration stakeholders have been yearning for to see the breakdown of barriers and silo-thinking in the sub-sectors above.
A drastically improved view of what’s going on in other people’s sectors ought to help us understand the mutual benefits that are on offer and the consequences if we don’t act differently.
A dearth of cash will have us sweating the assets we already have, encouraging thrift, eliminating wastage of resources and energy (commonly thought to be around 30%) and, hence, fostering sustainable approaches.
The net zero GHG emissions’ journey many are now in pursuit of will help focus our minds. Funders and governors of port-cities seeking cleaner and greener living might make that happen.
It would be encouraging to see retailers, naval architects, ship owners, shippers, terminal operators and logistics companies appear at collaborative events alongside port authorities.
Supply chain players – including new disrupters – really will have to come together regularly to combine resources and embrace innovation to continue growth plans. Simultaneously, we will all have to improve efficiencies, to save costs, in the new world era. Companies may not hold survive in the long-term if they don’t.
