The Global Industry Alliance (GIA) -a key IMO initiative supporting ship decarbonization- is set to be extended to 2023, in line with the timeframe of IMO’s Initial GHG Strategy. The extension follows two years of good progress by the initiative, whose 6th Task Force meeting took place in Gothenberg, Sweden, on 25 June.
The task force discussed developments in a number of ongoing projects, including the upcoming release of the first of three ‘Energy Efficient Ship Operation’ e-learning courses.
Work is progressing on the second course, which will provide guidance on how seafarers working in engine and deck departments can contribute to reducing fuel consumption.
Course three will be aimed at shipping companies and ports and what they can do to contribute to energy-efficient shipping.
Just-in-time (JIT) ship operation was also on the agenda, including how to address existing contractual and operational barriers.
The group discussed how the required exchange of data between ships, ports and terminal could be further incentivised – and agreed to reach out to the aviation industry to learn how, through global data sharing, the aviation industry has improved the reliability of arrival slots.
Several companies signed up to launch the GIA on 29 June 2017, under the auspices of the GloMEEP Project, a Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-IMO project aimed at supporting developing countries in the implementation of energy efficiency measures for shipping.