The Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has voiced that sustainable shipping is an aspect that he wishes to promote further.
He confirmed his allegiance to sustainable shipping practices during his inaugural address to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), the 69th session of which is being held this week at the IMO’s headquarters in London.
He spoke of the complex environmental issues facing the industry during his address to the Committee, such as greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping in light of the Paris Agreement; the sulphur regulation in 2020 and the implementation of the Ballast Water Management and Hong Kong Conventions.
Speaking of the Ballast Water Convention, Mr Lim stated that he has “every expectation that it will be reached during the current year, and once implemented, enabling “us to seriously address the current uncertainties surrounding the implementation of measures for ballast water management.”
He acknowledged that there has been a slow pace of ratifications but the “tremendous efforts made towards supporting the implementation of the Convention over the last 12 years are noteworthy.” For instance, the type approval of 65 ballast systems with more in the pipeline and the adoption of a pragmatic implementation schedule of the Convention by the Assembly; and the successful implementation of the GloBallast and GloBallast Partnership projects are just some of the successes seen to date.
Mr Lim continued, speaking of the concerns that some ship owners and operators have when installing ballast water systems and acknowledged that it can be challenging in a “difficult economic climate”. Furthermore, he stated that new technologies need time to mature “which has caused many owners to stand back and wait” but emphasised that these concerns should “not stop us from implementing the Convention”.
In response to the Paris Agreement, Mr Lim stated that “It is my strong belief that, in responding to the challenge set by the Paris Agreement, IMO’s main objectives will remain unchanged. He sees the IMO as a body that is able to demonstrate work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, to ensure that international shipping regulations are applied to all ships and to ensure that the interests of developing countries are taken into account.
The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change were two landmark achievements that were designed to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, and to limit the global increase in temperature to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Leading on from this, Mr Lim spoke of how the Committee will build on its contribution that the IMO has made to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and drew upon the fact that the IMO is “the only organisation to have adopted energy-efficiency measures that are legally binding across an entire global industry”. Mandatory energy efficiency standards mean that by 2025 all new ships built will be 30% more energy efficient than those in 2013, illustrating the IMO’s ability to identity solutions and create vital pathways for shipping to de-carbonise.
The enforcement of the mandatory energy efficiency requirements for international shipping have now been in force for over three years, and to this point Mr Lim stressed that this is a significant success story for the organisation and the fact that 1200 ships that have been certified as complying with the new standards is a huge milestone. He stated that “data to be presented to your Committee at this session clearly identify the improvements made, significant in many cases, in the energy efficiency of new ships being designed and delivered today.”
At MEPC 69, the Committee will also consider the report of the Intersessional Meeting of the Working Group on Further technical and operational measures for energy efficiency, which proposes a fuel consumption data collection system and makes recommendations for operational considerations. Mr Lim suggested that this data collection system needs to be robust and comprehensive and support the goals of the Paris Agreement. On Friday 22nd April this week, the signing ceremony at the UN headquarters will be held to mark the first stage in the Paris Agreement which was welcomed by Mr Lim as the first step in taking action on climate change goals.
Mr Lim spoke of how he hopes a proposal to designate the Tubbatah Reefs Natural Park as a Particularly Sensitive Area will be considered by the Committee, due to its ecologically important sea area and the risks it faces from international shipping.
Finally, Mr Lim addressed the other agenda items that he hopes will be considered this week. These include, the development of a draft guidance for assuring the quality of fuel oil delivered for use onboard ships; the establishment of a date for the Baltic Sea Special area to become effective; the adoption of amendments to the NOx Technical Code 2008 related to the testing of gas-fuelled and dual fuel engines for the NOx Tier III strategy; consideration of the full report of the Ad-hoc Expert Group on Facilitation of Transfer of Technology for ships; the approval of the updated version of the draft Manual on “Port reception facilities – How to do it”; and the analysis of recommendations to reduce administrative burdens in IMO instruments.
Photo courtesy of IMO.
Ship Efficiency Review will be reporting from MEPC 69 this week. For breaking news and insight please follow articles tagged “MEPC 69” on Shipefficiencyreview.com or follow #MEPC69 on Twitter.
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