Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Takeshi Hashimoto) today announced that it participated in the 2024 Summit organized by the Global Maritime Forum (GMF; headquarters: Copenhagen) (Note 1) as the sole sponsor of the event, which was held in Tokyo from October 15-17.
The summit brought together about 200 leaders from all areas of the maritime value chain, who engaged in lively discussions on decarbonization of shipping and human resources sustainability as issues that the shipping industry must unite to address.
Before the summit, International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco visited MOL, where Chairman Junichiro Ikeda and others explained their company's advanced initiatives toward safe operations and decarbonization.
The summit opened with a panel discussion, with MOL President Hashimoto taking the stage to discuss recent ESG issues (Note 2) and the overall situation surrounding the maritime industry with IMO Secretary-General Dominguez and Cargill Ocean Transportation President and GMF Chairman Jan Dieleman.
MOL Vice President Toshiaki Tanaka who serves on the GMF Advisory Board and Chief Sustainability Officer Tatsuro Watanabe, participated in plenary sessions of the Summit and joined spirited discussions with leaders from many fields on various issues surrounding the maritime industry, including decarbonization, DEI both at land and sea, biodiversity and ocean health, digitalization and AI, ship recycling and the circular economy. A briefing session was also held for the press, at which MOL Watanabe took the stage along with IMO Secretary-General Dominguez and others.
MOL will continue to work with the GMF and other organizations focused on the development of the shipping industry to proactively address all issues, including the decarbonization of the industry as a whole and improving the well-being of seafarers and other stakeholders.
