ONCE a year, an industry alliance of first-movers and green investors gather in a room for shipping’s answer to Davos, the annual Global Maritime Forum.

And it’s always an interesting conversation.

These are shipping’s optimists. The progressive cohort of industry leaders who have collectively invested billions of dollars in decarbonisation projects and spawned voluntary projects advancing everything from transparent green finance and insurance to diversity programmes and climate-aligned chartering.

But it’s not easy being an optimist in shipping right now.

There are the obvious geopolitical headwinds blowing in of course, but there is also a growing sense that the industry is in wait-and-see mode.

Shipping’s green first-movers are increasingly unlikely to move further without a sufficiently robust regulatory framework from the International Maritime Organization next year.

Scratch below the surface of the conversations about progress and innovation, and it’s apparent that we’re not yet at a stage where, even without the regulation, the industry is yet aligned on who ends up footing the bill for what is going to be a very expensive transition to green fuels and even basic efficiency investments.

And yet, despite all that, when the GMF gathered in Tokyo earlier this month there was a palpable sense of optimism in the room and genuine evidence that progress is not just possible, it is now inevitable.

So, has the shipping industry really moved from laggard to leader in the race to decarbonise? 

Joining Richard on this week's episode are: 

• Eman Abdalla, global operations director ocean transportation division, Cargill 

• Laure Baratgin, head of commercial operations, Rio Tinto

• Matthieu de Tugny, head of marine and offshore, Bureau Veritas

• Nick Brown, chief executive, Lloyd’s Register 

• Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general, International Maritime Organization

• Johanna Christensen, chief executive, Global Maritime Forum