New platform to shape the future of global seaborne trade
The Global Maritime Forum is a global platform for high-level leaders from the entire maritime spectrum and aims to effect positive long term change for the industry and for society. A global group of 14 industry leaders are founding partners to the Forum.
Leaders have called for a Global Maritime Forum to succeed the Danish Maritime Forum, which over three years became recognized as the “Davos of the maritime industry”. The new Global Maritime Forum is an international not-for-profit organization committed to unleashing the potential of the global maritime industry to increase sustainable long term economic development and human well-being.
“We are very pleased to announce the launch of the new Global Maritime Forum. Our ambition is to build a platform for collaboration among the participants in global seaborne trade and to bring about positive change for the industry and for society. This will not be a new industry association, but rather a community of leaders with the breadth and quality of engagement to represent with authority the views and interests of the entire maritime spectrum,” says Peter Stokes, Chairman of Global Maritime Forum.
“As a fragmented and siloed industry in an otherwise interconnected world the maritime industry needs a shared platform to tackle collective challenges. The industry is the lifeblood of the global economy but needs to take up the challenge of leadership in its unique position to contribute to sustainable growth that benefits all,” says Paddy Rodgers, CEO of Euronav, a founding partner to the Global Maritime Forum.
“As a capital-intensive industry with protracted investment horizons, the maritime value chain requires a long term outlook. The Global Maritime Forum will provide new perspectives from inside and outside the industry to better understand the long term forces shaping our decision-making,” says Peter G. Livanos, Chairman of GasLog LTD., a founding partner to the Global Maritime Forum.
The primary vehicle will be an annual summit which will bring together high-level leaders from across the maritime industry with policymakers, NGOs, experts and other influential decision-makers and opinion shapers to discuss industry-wide, long term challenges. It will be hosted in cities around the world on a rotational basis. The inaugural summit is expected to take place in October 2018.
The Forum will also serve as a broader platform for dialogue and collaboration between meetings to address global challenges that are particularly important to the maritime industry. This may include working groups and exploratory workshops to address specific industry-wide issues, recommendations for action and the like. The first results are intended to be presented at the inaugural summit in 2018.
14 global industry leaders are initially supporting the Forum as founding partners, including A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, Arshiya Limited, Euronav, GasLog, Gorrissen Federspiel, Gulf Agency Company, Heidrick & Struggles, Hempel, KfW IPEX-Bank, MISC, the Onassis Foundation, PSA International, Trafigura and Wan Hai Lines.
For any further information please contact Head of Communications Torben Vemmelund at tve@globalmaritimeforum.org or +45 2224 1446 or visit www.globalmaritimeforum.org.
Fact sheet
About the Global Maritime Forum
The Global Maritime Forum is a Copenhagen-based international not-for-profit foundation dedicated to unleashing the potential of the global maritime industry. It is committed to shaping the future of global seaborne trade to increase sustainable long-term economic development and human wellbeing.
To serve its mission, the Forum convenes leaders from across the maritime community with policy-makers, NGOs, experts, and other influential decision-makers and opinion shapers from all geographies in a community of purpose to discuss collective challenges and to work together on developing new solutions and recommendations for action.
In order to do so, the Forum identifies, develops and shares new insights and key issues on the global agenda and facilitates collaborative projects and initiatives that can deliver long-term impact and sustainable change.
The Global Maritime Forum is independent of political and commercial interests and operates in full respect of the important role played by governments and international institutions.
Governance
Legitimacy, accountability and transparency are fundamental principles to fulfilling the mission of the Global Maritime Forum, and they motivate the choice to establish the Global Maritime Forum as an independent, not-for-profit foundation. The Forum will be governed by an independent Board of Directors comprised of key representatives from business, government and civil society, who will help to set the direction for future priorities and actions.
Peter Stokes (Chairman), Senior Advisor and Head of Shipping, Lazard, United Kingdom
Amy Jadesimi (Vice Chairman), Managing Director, LADOL, Nigeria
Randy Chen, Vice Chairman and CEO, Wan Hai Lines, Taiwan
Flemming R. Jacobs, Senior Executive, Denmark
Jesper T. Lok, Chairman, J. Lauritzen A/S, Denmark
Oivind Lorentzen III, Director and Vice Chairman, SEACOR Holding, USA
Michael Parker, Global Industry Head, Shipping, Logistics and Offshore Industries, Citi, United Kingdom
Founding partners
The Global Maritime Forum is generously supported by a visionary group of 14 leading industry partners who share the Forum’s ambition of creating a shared platform to drive positive change that benefits not only their organizations and the industry, but society as a whole. The founding partners include:
A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S
Arshiya Limited
Euronav
GasLog
Gorrissen Federspiel
Gulf Agency Company
Heidrick & Struggles
Hempel
KfW IPEX-Bank
MISC
The Onassis Foundation
PSA International
Trafigura
Wan Hai Lines
Initiatives
Based in particular on the deliberations at the Danish Maritime Forum in October 2016, the Forum is initially looking to explore the forces of disruption that stand to impact the global maritime industry in the medium to long term. They were succinctly captured by Gillian Tett, US Managing Editor of the FT and chair of the 2016 Forum as “the three D’s: the dirty diesel debate, digital disruption and the Donald”. All initiatives will be subject to further discussions in the Board of Directors. They may include working groups and/or taskforces on specific issues, exploratory workshops to facilitate more detailed and focused discussions, reports to summarize key findings, recommendations for action and the like. The Forum intends to present the first results of the initiatives at the inaugural summit in October 2018.
1. Decarbonizing seaborne transportation
Given the growing demand to reduce the industry’s environmental impact, the Forum will use the global platform and convening power of the Global Maritime Forum to ratchet up the industry’s level of ambition and spur faster action towards ambitious, science-based emissions reduction targets.
Following the very promising working group on this topic at the Danish Maritime Forum in October, the Forum is working together with Carbon War Room, University College London (UCL) and the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition to build a global coalition of private and public stakeholders around the pillars necessary to achieve successful decarbonization and to bring forward a plan to decarbonize seaborne transport that could be presented to the industry for adoption. A first workshop to set the agenda for this work in 2017-18 was held in London on 23 June 2017 (with the generous support from the European Climate Foundation). Topics to be covered include: industry leadership, technology, finance, carbon pricing and transparency.
2. Digital disruption
The aim of this initiative is to generate insights into how emerging digital technologies are transforming the global maritime industry as well as the impact of these disruptive forces on the global economy, the international trading system and on the wider society. The goal is to assist key stakeholders in the maritime industry in exploring possible responses and in uncovering opportunities for collaborative action to successfully transition to the digital economy.
3. The rise of protectionism
The Forum is planning a research project to look at changing seaborne trade flows against the backdrop of the threat of a retreat from globalization. The purpose is to understand how the maritime industry - either alone or in collaboration with other industries and stakeholders - could contribute to mitigating the downsides of globalization and to building support for global trade and broad-based, inclusive growth and progress.
