Posidonia trade fair returns in June
The world’s leading marine classification societies return to the Posidonia exhibition this summer, after the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the pandemic.
The biennial trade fair, which takes place in Athens, Greece, from 6-10 June, 2022, will focus on mapping out the path to the International Maritime Organisation’s 2030 deadline for at least a 40 per cent reduction of shipping’s average carbon intensity (CO2 per tonne mile), compared to 2008.
Following the pandemic-induced hiatus, Posidonia organisers say they are expecting to equal the record for exhibitors, and have already filled 90 per cent of the venue space, with bookings still coming in. The last Posidonia exhibition in 2018 welcomed 2,009 exhibitors and had a total attendance of 39,485 people, according to the event’s website.
The most imminent milestone of the IMO’s decarbonisation roadmap is 1 January 2023, requiring that all vessels calculate their Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) and establish their annual operational Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII).
Organiser, Posidonia Exhibitions, says the Posidonia exhibition will ‘provide the world’s maritime community with a platform to meet with the likes of ABS, BV, CCS, Class NK, DNV, KR, LR and RINA, among others, to align a collective response to the IMO mandate and navigate the last miles remaining prior to the implementation deadline for the EEXI and CII requirements.’
Outcomes will depend on how quickly shipowners and the industry at large could respond to the IMO’s short-term monitoring requirements, as well as their long-term commitment to lower the limit of knots their fleets can travel.
“We know that the journey to a destination of net-zero by 2050 must begin and many shipowners and operators are well on their way. But companies and individuals will move at different speeds. Classification will play a key and vital role on the way to net-zero, supporting stakeholders, whatever their speed of change, but we probably need to prepare to be surprised,” says Paillette Palaiologou, vice president of the marine and offshore division for southeast Europe, the Black Sea and Adriatic zone, at Bureau Veritas.
Theodore Vokos, managing director at Posidonia Exhibitions, adds: “Decarbonisation and its drivers of new propulsion technologies, alternative fuels and required infrastructures will be extensively debated at the Posidonia 2022 conference programme, as indeed will all other issues of interest and concern to the global shipping industry.
“Once again, in June this year, Posidonia will provide a prestigious platform for the international maritime community to convene, communicate with each other, learn from each other, establish new partnerships and discover the latest trends and technologies that will impact the sector in the years to come.”
