SIMIC

Marcus Hand | Apr 07, 2022

The Maritime Just Transition was founded last November by the International Chamber of Shipping, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the UN Global Compact and the SMF has become its first partner.

It brings together governments, maritime workers’ unions, and the shipping industry to pursue a fair and equitable green transition in shipping, and aims to ensure workers’ rights.

Related: Industry, unions, UN taskforce to support seafarers in green transition

Tan Beng Tee, Executive Director of SMF, “We recognise that sustainable shipping requires a workforce equipped with new skills. A key challenge therefore is to identify the suite of skills required for new talent, and how to reskill the existing workforce. This collaborative effort speaks much about the desire of the global maritime industry to come together to address the urgent task of preparing a talent pool to support the sector’s transformation in the years ahead.”

The move by SMF to become a partner was announced during Singapore Maritime Week.

Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the ITF said: “It is fantastic to have new partners like the Singapore Maritime Foundation joining the task force as its critical work begins to gather steam. Singapore continues to be a key global maritime hub, and it is clear that they want to be part of helping drive this industry transformation.”

The Maritime Just Transition Task Force will launch a report at COP27 in November on the skills needed for a just and equitable green transition in maritime.

Guy Platten, Secretary General of the ICS remarked: “People are powering this green transition, and they must be set up for success. This is why we established the Just Transition Taskforce to ensure the seafarer workforce is supported. The first step is to quantify the skills needed for our workforce to be able to safely work on zero-emission vessels.”