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MARINE | Sustainability In association with North
Walking the walk Mark Church, Director (FD&D) and Head of Sustainability at North, explains that sustainability is central to the future of the P&I and wider insurance and maritime sector. But sharper definitions and a broader common understanding of what it really means is needed As reflected in the January 2022 edition of The Marine Insurer, sustainability is at the top of the maritime agenda as we move through 2022. Indeed, the focus on sustainability is inevitably only going to increase as shipowners and operators look to navigate through the upcoming patchwork of legislative measures and initiatives designed to aid the decarbonisation of shipping. There is a danger, however, of using the terms “sustainability” and “decarbonisation” interchangeably when evaluating the challenges that face insurers.
WORKING DEFINITION
Without a properly working definition of sustainability there is a risk that the focus becomes too narrow, and that both the The Marine Insurer | March 2022
positive work already undertaken by P&I Clubs and the challenges that we face are underestimated.
WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY MEAN?
Sustainability of course is the concept of ensuring a rich natural environment and strong society for future generations. Both a rich natural environment and a strong society are critical to the ability of North, all P&I Clubs and the entire maritime sector to thrive. It is therefore business critical for us to try to address the environmental and societal risks that threaten our success. The principal environmental risk is undoubtedly climate change and we are already seeing the impact of extreme weather events on claims type and quantum. If the world is 2C warmer by 2050, is that a world to which the mutual P&I system could adapt? Hopefully that will remain a question to which we never need find out the answer. Putting sustainability at the heart of P&I is not, however, only about climate change and the consequential need to decarbonise. It is also about meeting head on other critical environmental and societal challenges such as pollution, development, health and wellbeing and diversity. Defining sustainability broadly also helps to emphasize that much of the core work of a P&I Club is inherently supportive of a sustainability agenda – preventing and responding to maritime incidents, managing pollution, damage and loss of life.
RANGE OF IMPACTS
A more explicit focus on sustainability helps us understand the range of impacts we are having and how we can improve our impacts by embedding sustainability even more deeply
