Published by isobel.regan@dontpanicprojects.com
Published Date 18.06.2024 
It’s almost impossible to fathom that at any one time, there’s a fleet of over 60,000+ cargo vessels sailing across the world’s oceans, continually loading or unloading the commodities and goods that we need at the thousands of ports located around the globe.
This enormous industry transports over 11 billion tonnes of goods per year, enabled by an almost invisible army of 2 million seafarers who spend their lives at sea, at the mercy of the weather and global maritime trends.
Over the past four decades, seaborne trade has quadrupled in size thanks to the industry’s unique ability to offer economical and efficient long-distance transport with the lowest carbon emissions per tonne/mile. However, the economies of scale at play in the maritime industry make it colossal in its environmental impact and potential influence on the global economy.
Day-to-day, analysts watch the shipping markets like a hawk, reacting to any changes in freight rates, fuel prices, and global events that may impact productivity and profitability.
While monitoring the markets on a short-term basis is vital for the business of shipping, long-term forecasting of future potential factors and scenarios that could impact the industry (and global trade transportation) is imperative, especially for an industry that is weathering a plethora of regulatory requirements and intense pressure to decarbonise, and fast.
Albeit, for an enormous industry that sits at the centre of the world economy, how easy is it to forecast or model future trends? Also, how easy is it to communicate and disseminate findings to the masses for an industry that is so colossal in size but is largely invisible and impacts almost everything in everyone’s lives?
The work of Lloyd’s Register and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation to scope future maritime trends to 2050 and to communicate the findings from our multi-year Global Maritime Trends 2050 Research Programme through an innovative and far-reaching content campaign is still ongoing.
This is where the UK Content Awards come in as a vital platform for helping us spread the word further, beyond the maritime industry, into other industries and sectors so that people can understand the trends that may impact the world’s largest transportation industry in the future.
The exposure that Global Maritime Trends 2050, as a global maritime campaign, will receive from being a finalist in four award categories will be immeasurable in its positive impact on spreading the message. We are proud and grateful for the recognition by the UK Content Awards, which will help to highlight this vital programme in the UK and beyond.
“Global Maritime Trends was truly a global effort to shine a light on an industry often forgotten and hidden in the shadows. Winning this award would highlight the fantastic collaboration and creativity between Economist Impact, Lloyd’s Register, and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. It would mean a great deal to everyone involved in this year-long project.” Said Mark Warner, Strategic Content & Marketing Director at Lloyd’s Register.
But why did we start the Global Maritime Trends 2050 initiative?
As a professional services company serving the maritime industry, our principal business is ensuring ship safety. However, we do a huge amount of work in supporting the industry overcoming the twin challenges of the energy transition and digitalisation.
The GMT For us, people matter. We must continue to centre our strategies and actions on the well-being of our two million seafarers. Their unwavering commitment has been the bedrock of our industry, and as we navigate the waters toward 2050, ensuring their safety, rights, and growth becomes non-negotiable.
The Global Maritime Trends 2050 Research Programme was developed between Lloyd’s Register (that’s us) and Lloyd’s Register Foundation (a global safety charity). This relationship with the Lloyd’s Register Foundation means we don’t just look at what’s happening in the maritime sector, but we consider trends around the world impacting the sector and how this may affect people and society at large. In fact, we would like to go one step further and boldly say that the maritime industry has reached a decisive moment, and as we forge ahead, it becomes essential to not just anticipate change but to steer it towards sustainable outcomes. We are here to assist with that, and this initiative provides the expertise needed for the industry to make key decisions around decarbonisation and its people.
There has been plenty of future modelling on energy systems and their impact on trades and fuel supply in our industry. However, there hasn’t been a report that looks at the trends that will shape the global economy in 2050 and categorises them under the five key areas of geopolitical and macroeconomic, social, environmental, natural resources, and technology.
To address this information gap, the Global Maritime Trends 2050 report was launched on 12th September 2023 to serve as a compass for stakeholders, guiding decision-making processes in an era characterised by rapid shifts.
Authored by Economist Impact, the research involved an extensive literature review and 16 qualitative interviews with maritime policy and industry professionals. This research led to four feasible shipping futures that present warnings and opportunities for our sector, including fictional ‘what if’ scenarios such as the opportunities widespread adoption of hydrogen could bring or the potential critical challenges posed by a 40cm sea-level rise.
We won’t reveal the analysis and findings of these four scenarios in this blog (you will have to read the research for that juicy information), but it makes for very interesting and perhaps shockingly insightful reading. For now, here are some key takeaways to ponder:
- Key global ports in the US, Europe, and Asia could be unusable by 2050 without urgent action on decarbonisation.
- African countries could become the dominant supplier of seafarers by 2050.
- Women could make up 25% of all seafarers by 2050 (currently <2%).
Although these facts may seem alarmist, for us, keeping key decision makers within the maritime industry informed, as well as keeping the public aware of challenges faced by this colossal industry, is vital. Platforms such as the UK Content Awards enable us to spread the information wider and further to new audiences. After all, we all live on one planet, and the shipping industry and its workforce are a huge, influential part of our lives, even if we don’t realise it yet.
About Lloyd’s Register
For 260 years, we have shown relentless curiosity to discover our clients’ challenges and to work together to identify the best solutions. We enable better safety, technical, operational and business performance in the Maritime sector, serving clients across the globe.
Our people are trusted and respected worldwide for their deep technical expertise and professionalism. We value and build strong relationships and personal connections. Our innovation is grounded in listening to our clients and colleagues. This is why Lloyd’s Register (LR) inspires confidence as a trusted adviser, supporting clients with the challenges of today and tomorrow.
As humanity faces some of its greatest challenges, including population growth, climate change, and rapid technological developments, there is an urgent need to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. In this pivotal race, the ocean is a vital resource that plays a crucial role in meeting these challenges.
About Lloyd’s Register Foundation
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global charity with a unique structure and an important mission: engineering a safer world.
We reduce risk and enhance the safety of the critical infrastructure that modern society relies upon in areas such as energy, transport, and food. We do this by supporting high-quality research, accelerating technology to application, and through education and public outreach.
Our unique structure comes from the fact that we own a significant trading company, Lloyd’s Register (LR). We share the same mission and work together to make the world a safer place.
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