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It is a known fact that the global economy is greatly influenced by the shipping industry because of the fact that 90% of trading is carried over the oceanic routes . Over the years, the vast world of shipping has been imbibing the newer concepts of technology. While this has contributed a lot in improving the quality of services offered by the major shipping companies across the globe, we cannot overlook the fact that it had adverse effects on the environment. In fact, the maritime industry is regarded as one of the top pollution-causing industries in the world and of course, it is not a happy thought. Most of these ill-effects are irreversible and has caused a huge amount of pollution, which has destroyed the ecological balance and affected mankind too. However, the shipping organizations are now making a conscious effort to control the level of environmental pollution by implementing advanced methods. To embrace a sustainable, eco-friendly way of providing services, a majority of the shipping companies are now adapting to better ways of reducing the harmful emissions and are doing their level best to observe the new environmental rules. If we look at the example set forward by the US-listed Star Bulk Carriers, the company has gone a long way indeed by introducing exhaust gas cleaning units for around 100 vessels in its existing fleet, which will significantly cut down on the intensity of pollution. According to the recent data collected with respect to the maritime arena, no less than 90,000 vessels have made their journey across the ocean during the last year, which consumed an approximate of 2bn barrels of crude oil that has exhausted copious amounts of oils, chemicals, metals, and gas. The ships throw out a lot of harmful pollutants into the air that includes various forms of nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter. Did you know that the emissions from the vessels contribute to almost 2-3 percent of the total greenhouse emissions on earth? When harmful gases like carbon dioxide defuse, it inevitably leads to a rise in global warming and negatively influence the weather, as well. Realising the need to transform the age-old methods of shipping and save the world from the irrevocable harm inflicted on our surroundings, the organizations are trying to maintain new standards of shipping that will aim at decreasing the greenhouse emissions by 50 percent before the advent of 2050. To make this goal a realistic one, a sulphur cap will be implemented in January 2020 and will eventually lead to proper management of the carbon emissions. After several worldwide industries like power, aviation, transport etc has switched to a much better way of combating the bad effects of pollution, it is now high time that the shipping arena follows their lead and banish the usage of old fossil fuels. As an effective solution, the ship owners are now fitting the vessels with exhaust scrubbers or opting for fuels that have a low concentration of sulphur . Though this is just a start, we are hopeful that this will play an integral role in shaping the future of shipping in a positive way. We will discuss more on this next week so look out for our updates!