In recent years, many nations have begun to identify and address climate risks associated with rising GHG emissions. Since energy use is a significant contributor to GHG emissions, climate policies that target these emissions are likely to play a significant role in the world’s energy future by directly and indirectly affecting people’s energy choices.
As an addition to the ECSA position paper issued in October 2013 on the European Commission proposal for a CO2 MRV system on maritime transport, ECSA issued a position paper urging the EU legislators to refrain from extending the scope to ships above 400 GT and from including NOx/others GHG emissions which would respectively result in unnecessary administrative burden on small ships and in impractical monitoring issues in the proposed EU Regulation.
A new report from Lloyd’s Register (LR) and University College London’s Energy Institute, Global Marine Fuel Trends 2030, indicates that, in all scenarios, heavy fuel oil remains the main fuel for deep sea shipping while LNG develops a deep sea bunker market share of 11% by 2030.
During the annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change summit, it is worth remembering that there is one huge industry that has so far managed to evade any formalised efforts at emissions reductions. Every industry and transport sector in the European Union has greenhouse-gas emissions reduction measures in place, except for the shipping sector. The EU has established goals on the emissions reductions it wants to achieve from the sector, but seems to have no intention of enacting anything that will bring it anywhere near those goals, anytime soon.
A report, published last March, by AMEC, shows that the targets for shipping companies to reduce their sulphur emissions by 2015, could cause adverse environmental effects and result in a loss of 2,000 maritime services jobs, and place many more industrial jobs under threat. The report is the first of its kind to examine the full impact of hitting sulphur targets.
Due to its dependence on fossil fuel combustion and the fact that it is one of the least regulated anthropogenic emission sources, emissions from the marine transport sector contribute significantly to air pollution and climate change. The European Environment Agency last March published a report on the impact of international shipping on European air quality. The main objective of the report was to provide a comprehensive review of recent literature and reports, taking into account expert knowledge, on the maritime transport sector. The report addresses the sector’s impact on air quality and climate forcing in Europe and the executive summary of the report is presented in this article.
Work to update the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimate for international shipping moved forward during an Expert Workshop at IMO Headquarters during 26 February to 1 March 2013. A final study is expected to be delivered in 2014. The second IMO GHG Study 2009 had estimated that international shipping emitted 870 million tonnes, or about 2.7% of the global man-made emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2007.
During last February a very interesting article from Edmund Hughes, Technical Officer, Marine Environment Division, IMO was published in IMO’s website, explaining the new regulations aimed at improving the energy efficiency of international shipping, which entered into force on 1 January 2013 and make mandatory the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), for new ships, and the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) for all ships. Other amendments to MARPOL Annex VI add new definitions and the requirements for survey and certification, including the format for the International Energy Efficiency Certificate. The regulations apply to all ships of 400 gross tonnage and above. However, under regulation 19, the Administration may waive the requirements for new ships up to a maximum of 4 years.
The IMO MEPC held its 64th Session at IMO from Monday 1 through Friday 5 October with a high attendance of about 900 delegates. A Review Group on Ballast Water matters was formed together with 3 Working Groups on the subjects of Ship Recycling, Technical Co-Operation and Transfer of Technology, also Air Pollution and Energy Efficiency. In addition, 2 Drafting Groups studied Amendments to the IBC Code and Interpretations/Reports of sub-committees. Finally, an informal Technical Group met out-of-hours to report on the Saba Bank PSSA. The next MEPC meeting is scheduled during May 2013.
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Officer of the Watch 