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The impact of maritime decarbonisation on wellbeing: Findings of an ISWAN survey of seafarers and shore-based staff

Decarbonisation is one of the key drivers of transformation in the maritime sector. To address shipping’s contribution to the climate emergency, maritime companies are being required to take rapid steps to meet mandatory carbon emission regulations. At an institutional level, there is widespread acknowledgement that seafarers are central to meeting the maritime sector’s decarbonisation obligations.

However, through ISWAN’s daily conversations with seafarers, via both our helplines and our in-person work in India and the Philippines, we became concerned that, in practice, seafarers’ wellbeing is often overlooked amidst the urgent pressure to decarbonise.

For this reason, from June to September 2023, ISWAN ran a survey to ask seafarers and others working in the maritime sector about the impact that the rapid adoption of new technologies and regulatory regimes is having on their mental health and job satisfaction.