The chief executive of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has urged for private and public sectors collaboration to achieve green supply chains during the "Summer Davos" held by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Tianjin, China, from June 27-29.

As a panellist in the "Navigating the Climate-Trade Nexus" session, Takeshi Hashimoto, president and CEO of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd., joined the discussion on the friction and business opportunities created by national government-sponsored legislation aimed at stimulating green industries, global stakeholders discussed how they should approach the linkage between climate change and trade.

 [Photo:  Mitsui O.S.K. Lines]

"To build a clean supply chain with low environmental impact, collaborative efforts with companies and with the governments of other countries are important," Hashimoto said, as panellists engaged in a lively exchange of opinions with each other.

The MOL chief also reiterated his commitment to work together with partners to contribute to the decarbonization of ocean shipping.

Hashimoto, along with Miwako Ando, MOL chief executive officer, and Senji Tokumoto, chief country representative of China and associate executive officer, attended the Summer Davos — becoming the only Japanese shipping company, in the event, also known as the Annual Meeting of the New Champions.

Through its activities with WEF, MOL has participated in the frameworks proposed or established in the forum.

The Summer Davos is an international conference hosted by the WEF, where leaders from the world's economic, political, and academic worlds, especially from Asia, gather for in-depth discussions on addressing a range of global issues.

The last summer session was held in 2019, after which it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, MOL said it has positioned its environmental strategy as one of the key strategies in its "BLUE ACTION 2035" management plan and has set the goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 in the "MOL Group Environmental Vision 2.2."

The shipping line noted that it is committed to achieving the zero-emission goal by adopting clean alternative fuels and promoting wider adaptation of negative emissions as a pioneering multimodal transport group.