COVER STORY
Non-binary thinking Andreas Sohmen-Pao urges his shipowning peers to think more outside the box
A
long with Maersk’s Soren Skou, arguably there are few shipowners who are so vocal or determined when it comes to shipping’s decarbonisation than this issue’s cover star. Also like Skou, our cover star is one of shipping’s great consolidators. Andreas Sohmen-Pao is chairman of BW Group, one of the world’s largest maritime conglomerates with interests in tankers, bulk carriers, gas, offshore and latterly renewables. Always someone who comes across as an eloquent, thoughtful and intelligent speaker, SohmenPao, educated at Eton, Oxford and Harvard, has been Singapore’s most high profile shipowner for years, a position he is increasingly taking up on the world stage. Speaking as keynote at
22
CapitalLink’s 16th International Shipping Forum late last month, Sohmen-Pao discussed shipping’s all too often narrow mindset and the need to think outside the box. “I think we spend a lot of time these days thinking in binary terms - either, or - the false dilemma, the false dichotomy, where we say either we have energy security or we have climate change mitigation, it’s impossible to have both,” SohmenPao told delegates, stressing: “Either we use traditional fuels or we can’t progress as humankind.” Sohmen-Pao, the third generation at the helm of the BW Group, argued that the Ukraine war had shown the imperative of energy security and that without it, it would be impossible to tackle climate change thanks to potential social instability.
He said one likely outcome of the war would be a boost to renewables as countries seek alternative energy sources urgently. “This is how we define ourselves as an organisation in that we want to deliver energy for the world today and find solutions for tomorrow so we want to be an organisation that can walk and chew gum,” SohmenPao said. On the war in eastern Europe, Sohmen-Pao said the industry needed to be careful how it responded and to calibrate accordingly - a corporate position being far
“
We want to be an organisation that can walk and chew gum
”
maritime ceo
