New Shipping Industry Group to Help Victims of Maritime Piracy –
Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Program (MPHRP) is a new association whose mission is to aid crew members and families affected by pirate attacks. Currently, there are nearly 300 crew members from 15 different vessels being held hostage. The MPHRP is creating guidelines and training modules for use before, during, and after a crisis. The MPHRP also aims to construct an international network of trained responders and aftercare providers to support a 24 hour international helpline.
Read more from DC Velocity .
Predictions of a Booming US Economy by 2020 – The White House and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued very optimistic economic projections for the next decade. 24/7 Wall St., a financial news and opinion service, analyzed the government reports as well as non-government issued forecasts and found evidence for significant improvement in the U.S. economy by 2020. 24/7 Wall St. focused on nine critical economic factors in their analysis: housing prices, real income, inflation, military spending, entitlements, unemployment, taxes, interest rates and the state of the U.S. debt.
Read more from MSNBC .
Hapag-Lloyd Launches New Emissions Calculator – Hapag Lloyd’s new emission calculator, EcoCalc, is able to calculate a shipment’s CO2, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions. The calculator provides accurate emissions data by taking into consideration the impact of pre-carriage and on-carriage transport in addition to the ocean transportation. The purpose of the EcoCalc is to help customers make environmentally aware decisions in their supply chains.
Read more from Eye for Transport.
U.S. Pushes for a “Green Growth” Trade Deal at APEC – The United States hopes to persuade Asian-Pacific countries to agree to lower trade barriers on environmental goods and services. Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei support the U.S. push; however, 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum resist the proposed deal. The goal of the “green growth” trade deal is to encourage the trade in environmental goods and services and to foster environmental responsibility.
Read more from Reuters.
