IMO meeting tackles ship emissions – again

The mandatory application of energy efficiency measures for ships and further consideration of market-based measures (MBMs) are the issues garnering most attention

at a key environmental policy meeting at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London this week. Both are initiatives aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions in shipping.
The 62nd meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 62) will consider a proposal by some member states to add the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) for new ships, and the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP), to Annex VI of the MARPOL convention, making those measures mandatory for signatory nations.
Both these measures are already in voluntary use. EEDI sets energy efficiency requirements for the design of new ships class by class but lets each designer, builder or owner choose their own methods of meeting the standards – by their choice of technologies or methods. A similar approach applies to SEEMP on the operation of ships.
MEPC 62 will also consider the report of an inter-sessional meeting of a working group on GHG emissions, which met in March to consider a range of proposed MBMs. These are all broadly either bunker levy or emissions trading based proposals. These MBMs would go further than EEDI and SEEMP in securing reductions in emissions from shipping.
MEPC is under some pressure to make progress towards agreeing a market measure this year, with both the UN climate convention and the European Union threatening to act on regulation if IMO does not. But both the energy efficiency and MBM issues are the subject of high contention among IMO members.
Source: Carbon Positive