As the industry gears up for next week’s much anticipated MEPC 80 (Marine Environment Protect Committee) meeting, INTERCARGO Secretary General Kostas Gkonis has reiterated the importance that mid-term measures to help the IMO’s decarbonisation ambitions should be both simple and effective, so as to be efficiently implemented by ships worldwide.
In particular, Dr Gkonis was commenting on the IMO’s 15th session of the Intersessional Working Group on the Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships in response to the paper submitted by ICS “ISWG-GHG 15/3/7″.
This has included, in previous meetings, promoting the concept of Green Hubs for developing the necessary infrastructure to ensure availability of low/zero carbon fuels in ports around the world, and supporting along with its industry partners the establishment of an international maritime research fund for decarbonising shipping.
Regarding medium-term measures, Dr Gkonis referred to INTERCARGO’s written submissions in early 2021 to MEPC for taking forward and implementing mandatory market-based measures for international shipping, while soon after and some five intersessional sessions ago, INTERCARGO, after years of championing the concept in industry deliberations, was a frontrunner along with ICS in putting forward a levy-based MBM, per tonne of CO2 emissions, to expedite the uptake and deployment of zero-carbon fuels.
In this respect we express our support for the revised International Maritime Sustainability Fund & Reward mechanism, including the establishment of an IMO Maritime Sustainability Fund as in paper ISWG-GHG 15/3/7 by ICS and its combination with a simpler design of the Global GHG Fuel Standard, a technical measure as in document ISWG-GHG 15/3/6 again by ICS.”
..he said.
The IMO is currently in the process of revising its Green House Gas (GHG) Strategy and the much anticipated MEPC 80 meeting will take place from 3-7 July.
Furthermore, during the 2023 GREEN4SEA Forum, Dr. Edmund Hughes, Director, Green Marine Associates, presented key issues to be resolved on the Revision of the IMO GHG Strategy at MEPC 80 in July.
He briefly mentioned the current status of IMO negotiations and provided an overview of proposed technical and economic measures being considered by IMO including ways to encourage the uptake of alternative low-/zero-carbon fuels.
