Secretary-General to the IMO, Kitack Lim, and ICS Chairman, Esben Poulsson, will be spearheading discussions, following what will have been be an eventful two months in the industry’s legislative calendar.

ICS’s flagship International Shipping Conference will take place on Wednesday 13th September at The British Library, and will focus clearly on an agenda of key issues that are at the forefront of shipping today: CO2 reduction and environmental regulation, the maintenance of free trade and the role of the seafarer.

These will be debated by leaders engaged at the centre of these topics, including Magda Kopczynska, the European Commission’s Director of Maritime Transport; Jeff Lantz of the U.S Coast Guard, Sveinung Oftedal, Norway (who is now chair of the IMO working group developing a CO2 reduction strategy for shipping); Jan Hofmann from the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development, and Jacqueline Smith of the ITF seafarers’ union. Joining the debate, among many others, will be leading members of the ICS Board including John Adams (Bahamas), John C Lyras (Greece), Emanuele Grimaldi (Italy) and Svein Steimler (Japan).

There will a strong focus on panel discussion, and four main sessions have been announced: ‘CO2 Reduction: Developing the IMO Road Map’; ‘New Environmental Regulation: The Costs of Compliance’; ‘Maintaining Free Trade: Dusk or New Dawn?’’ and ‘Decent Work for Seafarers: Are we Delivering?’.

In addition, ICS expects to make an important announcement about its future direction as the industry’s principal trade association for ship operators.