The successful Greener Shipping Summit took place on 9 November 2021, at the Eugenides Foundation in Athens. Mr George Tsavliris was among the key speakers, discussing topics under the all-embracing title: 'Moving fast on the road to 2050'.

The shipping industry has ambitious environmental goals but the challenges in achieving them are great and it is important for all marine industry stakeholders to move forward in unison.
Over the years a key platform towards achieving this has been the annual Greener Shipping Summit.
The 2021 event was the 12th Greener Shipping Summit organised by Newsfront / Naftiliaki under the auspices of Greece's powerful technical body, MARTECMA.
The Greener Shipping Summit 2021 presented and discussed developments at the IMO regarding NOx, SOx, CO2 and PM emissions. The Summit also looked further down the road to decarbonisation, speed limits, emission caps, emission trading systems and alternative fuels and methods of propulsion.
The very successful hybrid event (due to Covid in-person limitations), counted over 190 delegates in the venue and 1,200 viewers from 16 countries around the world.

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Session: Owners' voice - Shipping and IMO in the next decades

• George A. Tsavliris, Principal, Tsavliris Salvage Group

•Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman & CEO, Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. 

• Harry Vafias, President / CEO, StealthGas Inc.

Moderator: Panos Kourkountis, Technical Director, Sea Traders SA

"The shipowner is taking the blame for what is being produced by the engine builder, the shipbuilder and the fuel suppliers," George Tsavliris, Principal Tsavliris Salvage Group, told the Summit panel discussing shipping and the IMO in the next decades.
Mr Tsavliris said the shipowner buys what's available and has become the scapegoat and an unfair balance has developed on environmental issues and it's up to the shipping community to stand behind the Imo and win back control of the industry while remembering the Imo is not a lobbyist but is a regulator.
Harry Vafias went further, declaring the Imo is not the "actual power in shipping" with the "US, European Union and China having their own power and have unfortunately pushed IMO aside." The President and CEO of StealthGas also stressed the importance of the industry lobbying saying the industry has 10 or 15 different organisations "which divides our power and limits our ability to influence decisions" unlike the automotive industry and airlines which have joined forces to push their requests.
Mr Vafias hoped that in the future shipping will be able to join forces and better fight its case in the Imo and international fora.
Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman and CEO of Seanergy Maritime, agreed "100% the industry is too fragmented with various groups having conflicting interests" declaring "shipping needs one voice". He said the underlying goal is to improve the environment. He used the example of scrubbers saying if the right moves had been made in the beginning towards the fuel suppliers, there would have been ample low sulphur fuel available as there is now. "The goal should be what is of benefit to the environment, not who is going to pay the bill," he said.
Mr Vafias and Mr Tsavliris advocated shipping call a conference of major shipping bodies and seek a united voice to put pressure on the industry's designers and builders, even if the decisions had to come down to a vote. Mr Tsavliris said shipping needs to meet directly with politicians and present its case as "most politicians are ignorant about our industry". It was agreed this lobbying should begin at the European level for, if Europe can be convinced others will follow.
The three owners were concerned about the efforts being made to protect the environment rather than protecting lives and felt more should be done for seafarers.

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The conference agenda can be found at:

https://conference18.newsfront.gr/home/conference-details/programme

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Conference video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnU1U4m7Zls&t=7496s