Shipping, Sustainability and COP 15

Question - is this about the sustainability (read survival) of the shipping industry? - Or about how to implement sustainability in shipping?  The latter...whatever that means....
Thursday and Friday's events reminded me yet again that the shipping industry (whichever part we mean, have to wait for my illustration later in this blog) face a paradigm shift and a shift in understanding.

Paradigm shifts -  the marine industry has faced these many times before, so while 'scary', they are not about the end of the industry. Just looking at Lloyd's Register rules confirms that we have seen at least three previous paradigm shifts as far as propulsion is concerned. We have seen other paradigm shifts - I am not convinced we remember just what the industry looked like 30 to 50 years ago. Did we have some of the complex layers we have now? And the answer is no. It was simple - an owner who was also the operator and the technical manager. And today - well wait for that diagram. Be interesting to see if we end up with more fragmentation and diversity or consolidation of roles - not companies.
Talking to the shipping industry at Copenhagen Business School 'Blue MBA' highlighted the subtle shift already occurring. If you look at the whole industry rather than to one element  of the industry, innovation was also apparent in terms of 'thinking out of the box'. Much as some Americans are doing in terms of planning and pushing the use of canals and other means to increase short sea shipping.
The issue of climate change is one of those pressures that is affecting change. But by no means the only one. And while the  Copenhagen negotiations focus on climate change, there are many other environmental opportunities and challenges facing the shipping industry. Most of which raise the sustainability challenge of balancing 'people, planet and profit'. I used a triangle concept to try to illustrate the balancing on Thursday
However the focus of this blog is on Copenhagen. So what have I seen since last on the marine side. Friday provided a good overview of:
- what the various options at IMO are in relation to Market Based Measures
- what the industry is doing in terms of fuel quality and quantity (a subject the land based community will be only too familiar with) 
- what industry is thinking about in terms of other methods of propulsion in the renewable energy arena (wind, wave and solar)
- what operational measures are out there - think slow steaming and virtual arrival
The presentation raised in my mind the question of 'what else may be out there?' so I am looking forward to spending some of my Saturday at the 'Bright Green' event and seeing what shipping is doing. 
There are many other sustainable issues ongoing such as the search for new or revised propulsion processes and other operational measures.

'First week impressions - 
When I wrote the blog setting out for Copenhagen 6 days ago, what to expect was very hazy. So has it improved and are we any clearer?  Not sure!!! The fog is still there and the poker game ongoing and the cards I can see do not allow me to guess the outcome. What is that book on 'outliers' and the other one on predicting the future?