Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, was once quoted as saying that “the next war will be won by the side which best utilises the electromagnetic spectrum”. He built the cold war Soviet Navy on this guiding principle. I remember being taught this quote as a young Naval Officer, and it recently came to mind as being analogous to the ability of modern shipping companies to maintain profitability in a landscape of constantly evolving environment legislation. Perhaps if he were reviewing the modern world of commercial shipping, Admiral Gorshkov might say that “the most successful shipping companies of the 21st Century will be those which find the best ways to achieve legislative compliance” Safety and Environmental legislation has long been a cost burden on the shipping industry without any recognised commercial benefit beyond the right to continue to operate. But with environmental regulation continuing on an ever tightening trend, it may represent a genuine opportunity for ship operators to derive significant commercial benefit. The most viable means of compliance can give operators a distinct cost advantage over competitors, and best use of emerging technologies will be a chance for operators to derive a genuine competitive edge. Oceanox has always maintained that compliance with the Emissions Control Area (ECA) rules from the 1st of January 2015 will be achieved by a range of methods, technological and commercial. Indeed there is nothing to say that a single operator will be confined to one means of compliance, a blend of a number may be the most effective route. It is nevertheless true that a proactive approach has the capacity to deliver dividends in a way that previous regulatory challenges have not.-
