As UN IMO Marine Environment and protection Committee 74 (MEPC 74) meeting is taking place this week, the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS) calls all stakeholders to take on responsibility and contribute to global policy making and commit to reaching attainable, workable and sustainable solutions to the problems related to the 2020 global sulphur cap in marine fuels and the issue of the GHG emissions reduction from ships.
As the President of the UGS, Mr. Theodore Veniamis stated
MEPC 74 is the ultimate opportunity to ensure a safe, smooth and consistent implementation of the 2020 0.5% global sulphur regulation and to effectively address the many and severe challenges stemming from it. This last opportunity must not become a lost opportunity.
He continued focusing on the matter of GHG emissions reduction that it is of a great importance to ensure that IMO’s new measures are easy-to-accomplish and suitable to the entire shipping industry.
In the meantime, he noted that each sector should be able to allowed to select the most ideal for its modus operandi and that should be respected by all. Specifically, because bulk shipping holds more than the 84%of the global trade, the new measures shouldn’t jeopardise its sustainability.
Moreover, the Union highlighted the fact that there are many more identified gaps in shipping’s regulation that result to practical problems. For instance, UGS referred to the issues of
- Safe, complaint fuel worldwide;
- The adoption of the Guidelines for consistent implementation with the inclusion of the ‘operational constraints’ clause;
- The application of sound and practical measures to deal in a pragmatic way with cases of ship’s non-compliance due to reasons beyond its control;
- The environmental, operational, legal, enforcement and other uncertainties related to the use of the Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems.
Concluding, Mr Veniamis commented
I am confident that the UN IMO will rise to the occasion and deliver on its unequivocal role as global regulator of the shipping industry. This global authority comes with great responsibility and this should be in the minds of all participating delegations to the imminent UN IMO MEPC proceedings.
