Ο Γιάννης Μανιάτης, επίσημος προσκεκλημένος της Κυβέρνησης της Δημοκρατίας της Μάλτας, συμμετείχε ως κεντρικός ομιλητής στις εργασίες του συνεδρίου «Θαλάσσιες Μεταφορές, Ενέργεια και Περιβάλλον: Καινοτόμες πηγές ενέργειας» στο πλαίσιο του Malta Maritime Summit 2016.
Στην τοποθέτησή του, ο Γιάννης Μανιάτης έκανε ειδική αναφορά στις μελλοντικές προκλήσεις που έχει να αντιμετωπίσει η ναυτιλιακή βιομηχανία σε σχέση με την ενέργεια αλλά και το σεβασμό στη βιωσιμότητα του θαλάσσιου φυσικού περιβάλλοντος. Βασικά σημεία της παρέμβασης του Γιάννη Μανιάτη ήταν τα ζητήματα προστασίας του θαλάσσιου φυσικού περιβάλλοντος μέσα σε ένα παγκοσμιοποιημένο περιβάλλον θαλάσσιων μεταφορών, υπογραμμίζοντας την περίπτωση της Μεσογείου όπου υπολογίζεται ότι περίπου το 30% του συνολικού όγκου του παγκόσμιου εμπορίου ετησίως διακινείται μέσω των 450 λιμένων της. Ακόμη αναφέρθηκε στις προκλήσεις που θέτει η εφαρμογή της Σύμβασης Διαχείρισης του Θαλάσσιου Έρματος (Ballast Water Management Convention), στις εκπομπές αερίων του θερμοκηπίου από τη ναυτιλία, στη διάδοση της χρήσης του υγροποιημένου φυσικού αερίου (LNG) ως καύσιμο πλοίων στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο, κ.ά.
Κλείνοντας την παρέμβασή του, ο Γιάννης Μανιάτης αναφέρθηκε στη δική του προσωπική εμπειρία ως Υπουργός Ενέργειας, Περιβάλλοντος και Κλιματικής αλλαγής, τονίζοντας ότι εξαρχής η προσπάθειά του διαπνεόταν από το όραμα της βιώσιμης ανάπτυξης και την προώθηση περιβαλλοντικά βιώσιμων πηγών ενέργειας, ως μία πράσινη, ασφαλή και ενεργειακά φθηνότερη λύση, που θα αποτελούσε κινητήριο δύναμη της ελληνικής οικονομίας με δουλειές και ευκαιρίες για όλους, με σεβασμό πάντα στο φυσικό περιβάλλον. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό, τόνισε ότι αισθάνεται δικαιωμένος με τη δρομολόγηση του POSEIDON MED 2, - ο ίδιος είχε στηρίξει το POSEEDON MED με συγχρηματοδότηση της ΕΕ -, ενός έργου όπως τόνισε που θα ενισχύσει ακόμα περισσότερο τη συνεργασία μεταξύ Ελλάδας, Ιταλίας και Κύπρου, υπογραμμίζοντας ότι οι συνέργειες στον τομέα της ενέργειας συνιστούν μία αποτελεσματική και ικανή λύση ενάντια στην κλιματική αλλαγή, και ιδιαίτερα για τη μείωση των εκπομπών του διοξειδίου του άνθρακα στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο. Επίσης, αναφέρθηκε στη σπουδαιότητα των περιφερειακών ενεργειακών συνεργασιών με χώρες του ΕυρωΜεσογειακού τόξου, που ο ίδιος ενεργοποίησε κατά τη θητεία του στο Υπουργείο, ως ένα εργαλείο προώθησης της Ειρήνης και της Ευημερίας των λαών της Μεσογείου που δοκιμάζονται από πολέμους, συγκρούσεις, προσφυγική κρίση, μετανάστευση.
Τέλος δεν παρέλειψε να αναφερθεί και στη μεγάλη πρόκλησή και ευκαιρία της ελληνικής ναυτιλίας και της Ελλάδας γενικότερα, όπου μετά την ολοκλήρωση της κατασκευής του σταθμού ανεφοδιασμού LNG στη Ρεβυθούσα και μαζί με τα 6 λιμάνια - Πειραιά, Πάτρα, Ηγουμενίτσα, Ηράκλειο, Λεμεσό, και Βενετία – ο Πειραιάς αποκτά πλέον ηγετική – προνομιακή θέση στην εξάπλωση της χρήσης LNG στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο, αντίστοιχη με το Ρότερνταμ και της Βαλτικής, συμβάλλοντας ουσιαστικά στη βιώσιμη ανάπτυξη και αποτελώντας ένα πραγματικό μοχλό ανάπτυξης της ελληνικής οικονομίας.
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Ακολουθεί το αναλυτικό κείμενο της ομιλίας του κ. Γ. Μανιάτη στα Αγγλικά:
It is a great honor for me to participate these 4 days to the Malta Maritime Summit and promote the dialogue between the various stakeholders about future challenges for maritime industry.
Greece, with more than 15.500 kilometers of coastline, is bound historically and culturally to the sea. Shipping is one of the main pillars of the Greek economy. At the same time shipping affects the marine environment that is associated with the other pillar of the Greek economy which is tourism. Thus, we give great importance to the protection of marine environment by all human activities including shipping.
We all know that the marine environment can be seriously affected in case of bad practices or accidents. The problems are stronger in seas like the Mediterranean where 30% of the total volume of world trade is carried out via its more than 450 ports as well as one fourth of the oil transport through tankers.
Thus, maritime activities must be carried out in a sustainable manner.
On the other hand, shipping, together with train, is the most ecologically friendly way of transport since its emissions’ per ton and kilometer are very low. Of course, this does not mean that we shouldn’t strive for even better performance. To that effect, there are several legal tools at global and EU level.
At this point, I want to underline that shipping is the only economic activity that is fully globalized, long before globalization becomes a widespread phenomenon with ideological and political implications.
The rules that govern international shipping are based on UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of Seas) and they have to conform to it. Consequently, the most effective way of regulating shipping is by global agreements that ensure the universal application of the agreed regulations in the context of IMO. Otherwise, given the easy change of flags, attempts to introduce unilateral regional arrangements can prove ineffective or bring the opposite of the desired result, despite good intentions.
The international community has a powerful toolbox of regulations to ensure good environmental practices, particularly in the context of MARPOL. We are glad that this toolbox was further enriched with the Ballast Water Management Convention that entered into force a month ago and complements the European Regulation on Invasive Alien Species that was adopted during the Greek Presidency during my time as Minister.
In order for the Ballast Water Management Convention to be implemented properly, IMO has to develop more robust type-approval guidelines for ballast water equipment and also to resolve the issue of aligning the IMO’s provisions with those of the USA.
Other important Conventions such as the Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling seem to have a long way to go before entering into force. In the meantime, the European Regulation on Ship Recycling will enter into force at the latest by 2018 and, if we want this EU Regulation to be a useful tool, we need to make sure that in the EU list of approved facilities, recycling installations from the Indian peninsula are included, not only from China or Turkey.
The forthcoming MEPC session will deal with some critical issues such as ships’ emissions data collection, decarbonisation of the industry and the 0.5% sulphur regulation.
For instance, agreeing on lowering the global fuel sulphur content to 0.5% will be an important step forward.
As far as the greenhouse gas emissions from shipping are concerned, the total emissions represent between 2,5 - 3% of the global greenhouse gas emissions (and they are expected to double by 2050) and about 4% of the EU emissions. In the Paris Agreement no concrete targets have been included for shipping but there is a general reference to the need that all sectors contribute to the efforts of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
However, any regional solution will inevitably lead to carbon leakage and thus prove to be highly problematic. Thus, the way forward is through IMO. The IMO should step up its efforts to that direction seeking innovative solutions tailor made to the specificities of maritime industry.Energy efficiency is the obvious typical example of a win-win situation. As a result of regulations adopted 2011, ships built in 2025 will be at least 30% more efficient than those constructed in 2014.
In any case, as a first step for decarbonization, it is imperative to reach an agreement in the IMO as soon as possible on the mandatory Monitoring Reporting and Verification scheme (known as MRV) on fuel consumption for all ship above 5.000 Gross Tons. If there is a global MRV regulation before the first of January of 2018, the EU MRV Regulation 2015/757 about monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport will have to be aligned with the IMO regulation according to the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 22.
Much has already been achieved; the environmental footprint of ships is being reduced. But to make a profound contribution to fighting climate change much more needs to be done. As always in the history of shipping, innovation in technology will lead the way and make the difference.
The use of on-shore electricity while the ships are in a harbor, the so called “cold ironing”, could significantly reduce emissions of both SO2 and NOx, but this is hampered by a lack of standards for the connection system.
On the other hand, I believe that small-scale technology in the natural gas industry is especially promising, enabling LNG as a marine fuel.
Using LNG as a marine fuel makes sense. I encourage its development as a maritime fuel because:
1. It is cleaner burning, respects concerns for the environment and enables compliance with strict emission regulations.
2. At the same time, LNG is commercially attractive and available globally in quantities that can meet the fuel demand of shipping in the coming decades.
Market Developments are also favorable. Today, as a result of lower oil prices, reduced demand in Asia and more and more countries exporting LNG prices have fallen.
So we must take advantage of these commercial opportunities and the multiple benefits LNG as a fueling option offers for the environment.
The LNG fleet is growing fast. It is impressive: Today there are about 63 LNG fueled ships already operating world-wide. About 76 orders have been confirmed and by 2018 140 will be in operation.
We must work to promote the necessary port facilities. At present, one of the major obstacles is re-fueling, as significant infrastructure investments are still needed for marine LNG to become a viable solution.
As Minister, I supported LNG as a marine fuel in Greece and encouraged the development of the POSEIDON MED project with EU co-financing. I am pleased that the POSEIDON MED 2 project is now underway, promoting cooperation between Greece, Italy and Cyprus. With the Revythousa LNG terminal and 6 ports – Piraeus, Patra, Igoumenitsa, Heraklion, Limassol and Venice the project can develop LNG as a marine fuel in the Eastern Mediterranean. Looking at the map, I believe that Piraeus, because of its location can play a leading role, similar to Rotterdam for the Baltic region.
My long-term goal in supporting this project was to encourage an efficient and effective solution to mitigate the problem of emissions in the East Mediterranean. I believe that creating synergies with shipping LNG will contribute to fighting climate change; and can become a safe, greener and viable alternative fuel for shipping.
Finally, I would like to wish a great success to this conference and to the incoming Maltese Presidency of the EU.