Shipping’s climate impact has increased 10% in just six years, according to a study released by the IMO. If no measures are taken, the study estimates that carbon pollution from ships could increase by up to 50% by 2050.
The third phase of an IMO-implemented project to enhance safe and environmentally sound ship recycling in Bangladesh has been given the go-ahead, with Norway committing approximately US$1.5 million (14 million Norwegian Kroner) to support improved ship recycling in Bangladesh.
The General Secretary of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Kitack Lim, highlighted the importance of digitalization, big data, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence on enabling the post-COVID recovery.
An ambitious roadmap to develop a National Maritime Security Strategy for Kenya was agreed on 21 July. The strategy aims to bring significant opportunities for social-economic growth.
The IMO received a report of ICS and ITF entitled ”Outcome of the surveys on health protections measures onboard ships in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic”. The ICS survey aims to gain further understanding of the health protection measures introduced by companies on board their ships during the pandemic.
Following postponement of all IMO meetings scheduled from March to July 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the IMO now announced that work is underway to reschedule these meetings, including the possibilities for virtual meetings.
What was on the minds of all shipowners coming into 2020 has now been clearly over shadowed by COVID-19 and its impact. However, as IUMI says, challenges remain on the full implementations of IMO’s 2020 sulphur cap.
The IMO-led GloFouling Partnerships project is tackling the introduction of invasive aquatic organisms into new marine environments. Such invasions have the potential to affect biodiversity and ecosystem health, but also significantly affect several economic sectors.
Progress towards greener and safer ship recycling in Bangladesh has been reported during the annual meeting for the IMO-Norway-Bangladesh project on “Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh – Phase II” (SENSREC), held virtually on 8 of July.
Thirteen governments from around the globe joined their forces in a joint letter pledging their commitment towards seafarers, asking for crew change facilitation and key worker designation.
