Poseidon Principles - en strategisk regleringsmodell för ett fossilfritt transportsystem

Forskningsprojekt, 2023 – 2024

The Poseidon Principles (PP) is a regulation designed to regulate a specific part of shipping operations, namely CO2 emissions. It is a private initiative based on the specific conditions of shipping and balances the interests that the actors in this industry have in their common goal for the climate and for their industry. An analysis reveals that the principles can be generalised and seen as an interesting regulatory model that, in theory, has potential as a strategic legal instrument to contribute to solutions within an area that is known to be hard to regulate; shipping.
Our study aims to show the relevance and potential of the regulatory model. By doing so we contribute to the understanding of how problems of regulation can be solved in the context of stakeholders with significantly different resource profiles. This can contribute to goals like a fossil free transport system.
We therefore study the model’s impact on value co-creation among an ecosystem of interdependent actors who share an interest in reducing CO2 emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and consequently improving the climate footprint of shipping companies, and possibly other entities as well. We view the (PP) from a resource perspective, i.e. it is a focal resource which, if bundled creatively with the resources of other actors, has the potential to influence energy consumption in a sustainable manner. We intend to apply a qualitative multiple case-study design where the utilization of the regulatory model is studied by regarding the interplay between focal resources among key stakeholders. Further, we will include semi-quantitative assessment of potential reduction of other types of environmental impact, e.g. in terms of contaminant loads, which could further improve the PP regulatory outcome.
The knowledge gained from this study is intended to be of use by all the different actors involved; the private parties such as financiers, insurers, charterers, cargo-owners, shipowners, and local regulators e.g. ports, national regulators e.g. Transport Agency and Agency for Marine and Water Management, multinational regulators such as the IMO and the EU, as well as NGO:s engaged in environmental efforts.