The Lloyd’s List Podcast: From Freeports to carbon free shipping

SHIPPING lobbies have criticised a European Union proposal for the regulation of shipping emissions as damaging international decarbonisation progress and lacking understanding. The proposed rules, which will require legislative and political scrutiny before approval, would apply to those ships of 5,000 tonnes and above that use EU ports, regardless of their flag, and would affect almost 12,000 vessels. Lloyd’s List’s regulatory expert Anastassios Adamopoulos joins Editor Richard Meade on the podcast this week to analyse the potential fallout from this latest political move from Brussels and question whether the industry is taking this development seriously enough. Meanwhile, the UK government’s plans to create up to 10 freeports to ‘Turbocharge’ trade in the wake of Britain leaving the European Union have received a mixed response from industry figures who warn that the freeport model is not the silver bullet being trumpeted by some. But after a 10-week consultation on the issue was officially announced last week, after months of being trailed in the media, several of the UK’s largest ports are expected to pitch their plans. Joining the podcast this week to dissect the latest developments and unravel the political spin, we have not one, but two UK Ports powerhouses - Richard Ballantyne, chief executive, British Ports Association and Tim Morris, chief executive of the UK Major Ports Group.