The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the UN Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the maritime industry’s capacity for carbon accounting and management.

The MoU builds on MPA and GCNS’s long-standing partnership to improve maritime sustainability capabilities, including a 2017 MoU to offer maritime enterprises with sustainability reporting training.

Under the new MoU signed on 14 August, MPA and GCNS will work with key industry associations such as the Association of Regional Ferry Operators, the Association of Singapore Marine & Offshore Energy Industries (ASMI), the Singapore Association of Shipsuppliers and Services (SASS), and SSA to train their members in workshops on how to use the Carbon Emissions Recording Tool (CERT) to measure and monitor their companies’ carbon emissions.

The partners will collaborate to create training workshops to meet the carbon accounting and management needs of maritime companies, including sharing information on green financing and funding schemes that maritime companies can use to reduce the cost of deploying low and zero-carbon emission technologies and vessel designs.

Teo Eng Dih, Chief Executive of MPA, said: “This MoU with GCNS reaffirms the importance of carbon accounting and management tools, to help maritime companies to accurately measure, report and verify their carbon emissions.”

Veronica Lai, Vice President of GCNS, stated: “GCNS is delighted to strengthen this vital partnership with MPA and the trade associations of ASMI, ARFO, SASS and SSA. We firmly believe that collaboration within the industry is essential for advancing Singapore’s maritime decarbonisation efforts, and this MoU is a testament of that commitment.”

In July, MPA and Microsoft signed a MoU to work on new technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, robots, and cybersecurity.