IMO announced that the first national workshop under the GloMEEP Project, which aims to support increased uptake and implementation of energy-efficiency measures for shipping, has been held in Georgia.
Georgia is one of the Lead Pilot Countries for the project, which aims to build understanding and knowledge of technical and operational energy-efficiency measures to lead maritime transport into a low-carbon future.
The national workshop in Batumi, Georgia (15-17 December), focused on raising awareness of Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), in particular the energy-efficiency regulations in chapter 4.
These regulations include requirements for new ships to be built to be more energy efficient, using the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), and for all ships (new and existing) to develop a Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP). Barriers to implementation were identified and discussed in order to draw up plans to tackle them.
Participants included officials from Georgia’s Maritime Transport Agency, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection and Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, as well as representatives from several ports and academics from maritime training centres. The workshop was organized by the Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia with support from the Black Sea Commission and funded by IMO’s Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme.
Following the workshop, Georgia’s GloMEEP National Task Force held its first meeting (18 December) and discussed its National Work Plan for 2016. This plan sets out the activities that Georgia will be undertaking under GloMEEP, including: legal, policy and institutional reforms, such as developing the country’s energy policy for the maritime sector; capacity-building and awareness raising, through workshops; and the development of public-private partnerships to catalyse maritime sector energy-efficiency innovation, R&D and technology deployment, by engaging with private-sector companies in the country to run workshops or other activities.
GloMEEP, a joint project of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and IMO, was formally launched by IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu in September 2015 in Singapore, at the IMO-Singapore Future-Ready Shipping 2015 conference.
Formally designated “Transforming the Global Maritime Transport Industry towards a Low Carbon Future through Improved Energy Efficiency”, the project focuses in particular on building capacity to implement technical and operational energy-efficiency measures in developing countries, where shipping is increasingly concentrated.
Source & Image Credit: IMO
