Last week, shipping professionals from across the world congregated for an exciting week of innovation, collaboration, and thought leadership, marking another successful year for one of the biggest events in the maritime calendar.
The theme for this year, ‘Reframing Risk in a Complex Market’ explored crucial issues facing the shipping industry, from decarbonisation and the protection of marine environments, innovation, and technology, seafarer safety and well-being, equality and diversity, cyber security, and AI.
On Monday we celebrated the first year of the Rewriting Women into Maritime History initiative, a collaboration between Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Lloyd’s Register. Our SHE_SEES exhibition launch event, hosted at the International Maritime Organization, was attended by over 400 attendees, from policymakers, academics, ministers of state, and historians.
Notable guests included, IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim, as well as Nusrat Ghani, Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade, who later spoke of SHE_SEES in the House of Commons, marking a fantastic milestone in recognising women’s involvement to maritime over the centuries.
Showcasing historical research alongside captivating interviews and stunning photographs, this exhibition was a powerful testament to the women who have shaped the shipping industry across generations. Now available to view online, it delves into the stories of over 50 professional women working within a range of maritime roles across the UK, shining a light on their incredible contribution to the industry.
“Our SHE_SEES exhibition was an incredible opportunity to raise the profile of female shipping expertise, experience, and leadership. It has helped reframed the narrative around women from the maritime past, present and future and promote gender equality and diversity within the industry. By sharing our Rewriting Women into Maritime programme internationally next year, we hope to inspire change and encourage a more inclusive maritime world,” says Louise Sanger, Head of Research, Interpretation and Engagement, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre.
The second day of LISW signified the launch of our multi-year Global Maritime Trends 2050 research programme in partnership with Lloyd’s Register. This was presented at The Gherkin and explored the emerging threats and opportunities facing the maritime sector future in the form of four possible future scenarios.
In 2021, women accounted for less than 2% of the global seafaring workforce but a technology-driven energy transition could see this number rapidly increase by mid-century, indicates the new Global Maritime Trends 2050 report. Our launch event featured an all-female panel discussion about the report's findings with Captain Louise Sara, Director Maritime Standards (Carnival Corporation & PLC). Ambassador Nancy Karigithu, Blue Economy Advisor to the Executive Office of the President of Kenya, and Maritime and Blue Economy Special Envoy, Leticia Astudillo, Deputy Director (Drewry Maritime Advisors), Claudene Sharp Patel, Global Technical Director (Lloyd’s Register), moderated by Katharine Stewart (Economist Impact).
Speaking on the report Jan Przydatek, Director of Technologies, Lloyd’s Register Foundation commented: “The Global Maritime Trends 2050 report is just the first step in our longer-term programme, providing much needed insight and foresight about future global trends that enable the wider maritime industry to prepare for the future. It highlights geo-political, macro-economic, technological, environmental, and social trends, and how they shape the future of maritime trade.”
Nick Brown, CEO of Lloyd’s Register, said the report and the wider programme which will help benchmark some of the findings, represented an excellent opportunity to prepare for change and take action. He commented “Other industries are much better at forecasting. The financial sector, for example, has a deep understanding of potential future scenarios and how to prepare for them, but shipping lags behind. From tackling the energy transition to sourcing the next generation of seafarers, we’ve allowed uncertainty to delay action for too long. Now we’ve created a way for the industry to get a much better idea of the future. It’s time for them to get on board.”
Our Chief Executive, Ruth Boumphrey was also present at a number of other events throughout shipping week, including a discussion at the second edition of the Maritime London Shipping Risk Forum. Joined by Martin Taylor, CEO of OneOcean Group, Ruth shared insights at a panel discussion focused on the safe transition to net-zero. She discussed the Foundation’s funded initiatives which are helping to accelerate a just transition, and shared future fuel mix projections from the Maritime Decarbonisation Hub’s 'The future of maritime fuels' report, also released during LISW.
Ruth joined Lloyd’s List’s dedicated LISW podcast, with speakers Claudene Sharp-Patel, Technical Director at Lloyd’s Register, Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, Chief Executive of DNV Maritime, and Principal Consultant in Maritime Environmental Technology at DNV. Exploring findings from the Global Maritime Trends report, Ruth discussed why it is important that we consider shipping’s future as part of a wider series of interconnected factors that are impacting our world, and how we can build shipping’s resilience to these increasing challenges.
Dr Ruth Boumphrey, Chief Executive at Lloyd's Register Foundation, said: “London International Shipping Week has been a great platform for the Foundation to engage with partners, industry stakeholders, policymakers, and our wider maritime community. It has been an opportunity to network and collaborate, which is instrumental in convening dialogue across the maritime sector and shine a light on the need for ambitious, transformative change in shipping.
“By continuing the Foundation’s commitment to programmes and initiatives which focus on creating a more sustainable future for shipping, we can also address society’s global challenge of climate change mitigation, building a safer world for all.”
Read our Global Maritime Trends 2050 report: https://www.lrfoundation.org.uk/en/publications/global-maritime-trends-research-programme/
For more information on the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub visit: https://www.lr.org/en/expertise/marine-energy-transition/maritime-decarbonisation-hub/
Learn more about our Rewriting Women into Maritime initiative: https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/whats-on/rewriting-women-into-maritime-history
