Danish shipowners want IMO decison on C02 emissions reduction road

The focus is on the shipping industry and the IMO to set out a plan to reduce CO2 emissions this week following the exclusion of the shipping and aviation industries from the UN Federal Climate Change Commission (UNFCCC) Paris COP21 agreement.

“Now is the time for the IMO to put down a roadmap on what shipping should deliver. We sincerely hope the IMO will be able to take a decision this week,” Jesper Forup Stubkjaer, senior advisor for the DSA said at a seminar on Disruptive innovation for radical C02 reductions in Copenhagen.

However, he noted that it was by “no means a given” with “powerful forces”, which he did not name, against a decision being made with some believing there is not enough data available. Stubkjaer said that the DSA believes there is enough data available to make a decision on a roadmap for CO2 reductions at the IMO this week. Immediately after speaking at the forum on Monday, which is part of Danish Maritime Days, Stubkjaer left for the MEPC meeting in London.

He stressed the regulations should be put in by the IMO to ensure that they are “flag neutral”.

While the shipping industry has already delivered CO2 reductions through the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) with a 10% reduction by 2010 and 35% by 2025 more would be needed. “We already have global regulation but there is no doubt that EEDI will not deliver the Paris targets, so we need something significantly more than EEDI.”

Stubkjaer noted the agreement on CO2 reductions announced by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) covering the aviation industry globally. “We’re not certain what has been agreed by ICAO is enough”. What ICAO had done though was send a clear signal to the global economy it was serious about emissions reductions.

However, former DNV GL ceo Henrik Madsen commented that the ICAO deal was “a very weak commitment if you studied it”.

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Danish shipowners want IMO decison on C02 emissions reduction road map at MEPC this week