The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has welcomed progress made by the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Committee (MEPC) last week (18-22 April) towards the adoption of a global CO2 data collection system.
Throughout MEPC 69, Member States showed keen interest to work towards emissions reductions in the shipping industry and to implement a global data collection system. It is hoped that by October 2016, when MEPC 70 will take place, the IMO system will be fully adopted.
Once adopted, the global data collection system will mandate all ships above 5,000 GT to provide information on CO2 emissions via their flag States.
The data collection system will enable IMO Member States to be in a better position when considering the development of additional CO2 reduction measures to mitigate the effects of climate change, say ICS.
Peter Hinchliffe, ICS Secretary General stated that: “We believe that IMO Member States have agreed an acceptable compromise between governments primarily interested in data on fuel consumption and CO2 and those that wish to collect additional information, for example on so called transport work.”
Mr Hinchliffe also stated that “the priority is to now persuade the European Union to adjust its unilateral regulation on the reporting and verification of individual ship emissions to make it compatible with what has now been agreed at IMO.” Stating that this may still be an uphill struggle, Mr Hinchliffe spoke of the constructive attitude taken by EU Member States during MEPC 69 and the other nations that had initial concerns about the decision to make the IMO system mandatory.
ICS also submitted to the MEPC a proposal that should develop an Intended IMO Determined Contribution for CO2 reduction on behalf of the sector. This would mirror the commitments or Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs) which governments have made for their national economies, but from which international transport is currently excluded.
ICS said its proposal was well received by a number of IMO Member States and will be taken forwards to the October meeting with other submissions made by governments and others with respect to how IMO should respond to the Paris Agreement.
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