Dealing with a number of environmental issues
Half the week gone and what has happened at IMO MEPC 62.
The plenary meeting has been busy dealing with a number of environmental issues covering among others ballast water, recycling, NOx and SOx emissions, environmental risks as well as initiating discussion on energy efficiency matters.
The first day had some clear highs such as the Secretary Generals opening speech – to the award presentation, an emotional but also celebratory event, to Lindy Johnson’ husband of her being awarded the International Maritime Prize for 2010. The IMO Secretary General speech among many points mentioned her crucial involvement in the development of revised procedures for the designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas.
As usual at this point in the agenda the MEPC has send out a number of working groups, review groups etc which will report back at the end of the week. The room is focused and concentrated on the issues on the table. However trying to predict the outcome on a specific issue is not at this point possible. I remind myself as I sit in plenary of where we were at previous MEPC when the rumours were busy that we would not get a good conclusion and by Friday evening we had a good outcome. Added to that the fact that even with perfect information now I could not predict the outcome as is well illustrated in Black Swan
The wish of many in the room is that we have a positive outcome on all the issues. Just take a look at some examples:
- IMO preview video about greenhouse gases,IMO also has a very active twitter account which provides useful information – http://twitter.com/#!/imohq
- ICS – press release related to EEDI – “Every vote will count.” explained ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe. “We appreciate that some developing countries – in our view mistakenly – are concerned that a positive IMO decision on technical measures, that will apply to all ships equally, regardless of flag, might somehow prejudice their positions at the high level UN Climate Change negotiations. But any failure to agree at IMO will make discussions on the reduction of shipping’s emissions far more difficult. As well as being bad for the environment, a ‘no’ vote will threaten the ‘level playing field’ in international shipping with the risk of very serious market distortions.”
- Lloyds List on ballast water
So lots of activity and yes we are having fun and matters are moving forward which is positive.
Source: Lloyd’s Register
