Climate emergency impacts and adaptations in shipping: Analogical policy formulation and recommendations

The impacts of the climate emergency and the need to implement adaptation strategies in shipping have garnered growing attention due to the potential economic disruptions. Policies and measures to reduce the climate vulnerabilities for global shipping are still in the infancy stage, resulting in inconsistent standards and insufficient regulatory regimes. The lack of adequate adaptation mechanisms continues in an upward trend. To date, the problem of climate crisis in shipping has received scant attention in the research literature. Current measures in combating the climate emergency in shipping remain speculative without regulatory guidelines. This paper argues that climate policies are crucial to implementing an effective global shipping adaptation strategy. To support this position we applied a Delphi methodology and collected 39 data sets from 13 experts. We asked the experts two questions: 1) what climate policies are most critical in addressing the climate emergency, and (2) how do those policies contribute to developing a practical climate emergency framework that supports an adaptation strategy for shipping? The results showed that five adaptation measures, including climate-resilient infrastructural development, climate-resilient navigational aids, risk assessment and mapping, climate-ready regulations, and vessel safety standards, contribute directly to the shipping adaptation strategy.