Ship Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and the outcome of relevant UNFCCC meetings, in particular COP21, are on the agenda today at the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee’s (MEPC) 69th session.
A full review of discussions and actions from today’s plenary session will be revealed by Ship Efficiency Review this afternoon.
The official agenda Item 7 reads as follows:
ITEM 7: REDUCTION OF GHG EMISSIONS FROM SHIPS
The Committee will consider the outcome of relevant UNFCCC meetings, in particular COP 21, together with any other submissions received under this agenda item.
Papers:
7 Outcomes of the United Nations Climate Change Conferences held in Bonn in June, August and October 2015 and Paris in December 2015 – Secretariat
The secretariat provides a general summary of relevant outcomes from the UNFCCC meetings in Bonn and Paris during 2015. The main outcome reported is that IMO has been invited to report to future sessions on work relevant to emissions from fuel used for maritime transport.
7/1 Proposal to develop an “Intended IMO Determined Contribution” on CO2 reduction for international shipping – ICS
In this submission, ICS proposes the development of an Intended IMO Determined Contribution (IIDC) on CO2 reduction for the International Shipping Sector taking into full account the agreement reached at the COP 21 meeting in Paris.
It is proposed that the development of the IIDC should be done as soon as possible, to be made publically available and to be reported to future UNFCCC meetings. Furthermore, ICS believes that the work to develop the intended contribution should:
- Be undertaken in parallel with the implementation of a mandatory data collection system; and
- Should not delay the approval and implementation of the data collection system which should be the overriding priority at this session. ICS considers that substantive further consideration of the important issues raised in this submission and in papers 7/2 and 7/4 could then take place at a future session, for example at MEPC 70 in October.
7/2 International shipping’s share in international efforts to limit the rise of global average temperature – Belgium, France, Germany, the Marshall Islands, Morocco and Solomon Islands
The Co-sponsors propose that a work plan should be developed to develop a definition of what is meant by a “fair share” for international shipping to contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions. A proposed draft work plan is provided in the annex to this submission. The proposed timescale aims for completion at MEPC 72 in spring 2018.
7/3 An appropriate IMO response to the Paris Agreement – CSC
The Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) provides comment on four areas where it considers that further progress is needed at IMO in response to the November 2015 COP 21 meeting in Paris.
Shipping’s Fair Share
CSC welcomes the input from ICS (69/7/1) and from Governments but calls for the industry to decarbonise and for incentives to be put in place to achieve this.
Global MRV
CSC recognises that the establishment of a global system of MRV is an important first step. However, this submission also argues for the inclusion of detailed cargo information, which IMO has agreed is not necessary.
EEDI phase 2 Requirements
CSC contends that significant improvement in the energy efficiency of newbuild ships as indicated by attained EEDI data provide evidence that much more can be easily achieved, and so the EEDI requirements should be made more demanding.
Measures for existing ships
CSC questions the appropriateness of the agreed three phase approach and contends that development of new measures should proceed in parallel with data collection.
7/4 Establishing a process for considering shipping’s appropriate contribution to reducing CO2 emissions – WSC, CLIA, INTERTANKO and IPTA
The co-sponsors of this paper broadly agree with the proposal in paper 7/2 that a work plan should be developed to develop a clear understanding of what should be the long term carbon objective for international shipping. In addition, this paper proposes that in order to provide accurate information on actual consumption to inform a sound carbon policy it is necessary to finalise and adopt the IMO data collection system.
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