Dubai, Nov 21 (IANS) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) next month will host an international maritime convention on 'green shipping' that will present the latest energy-efficient and environment friendly technologies, WAM reported Friday.
The Seatrade Middle East Maritime 2008 exhibition would be held at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre here Dec 14-16.
'With more than 90 percent of the world's freight travelling by sea and the global fleet burning around half a billion tonnes of fuel a year, green shipping is one of the hot topics of the year,' said Christopher Hayman, managing director of event sponsor Seatrade.
One of the new technologies will be marine engines run on compressed natural gas (CNG).
Ships fitted with CNG engines would not only be environmentally cleaner but also cheaper to operate, according to Jimmy Ng Hwee Khoon of the Singapore-based Jenjosh Group, one of the exhibitors at the Seatrade exhibition.
CNG represents a potentially huge shift in the way the world's shipping fleet is propelled and the Jenjosh Group is launching the first vessels fully propelled by using CNG main engines and generators, the company said.
'These are the ships of the future with efficiency in cost and fuel cleanliness - a truly green ship,' Khoon said.
The world's 90,000 strong fleet of freight ships burn oil-based fuels and emit more than 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. The emission is set to rise by 30 percent by 2020, shipping experts say.
More than 25 million tonnes of polluting gases are also emitted every year by ships, much of these around coasts and ports.
Among the exhibitors at Seatrade will be Greenwave, a Britain-based charity focused on lowering carbon dioxide and other emissions by reducing the consumption of fossil fuels.
In tandem with the Seatrade will run the Middle East Money ad Ships conference to discuss shipping economics.
With more than 82 ships expected to visit Dubai in 2009, the sixth Seatrade Middle East Cruise Conference Dec 15 will examine the growing importance of cruise tourism as more countries follow Dubai's lead.
The Seatrade Middle East Maritime exhibition and conference are held every two years and have evolved into one of the world's fastest-growing maritime events, ranked among the industry's Top 10 largest.
The 2006 event was the biggest till date with 6,000 trade representatives from 63 countries participating.
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