Environmental regulation 'avalanche' in focus at ICS conference

At the forefront of owners' anxieties were what ICS director of external relations, Simon Bennett, described as an avalanche of environmental regulation that could cost the industry at least $500bn over the next ten years and stall any recovery.

The process by which these regulations have and will be brought in was put into question from various aspects. Given that these regulations are increasingly reliant on technology the call was for rules that were simple and that the technology actually works.

There was particular unease about the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, which will probably come into force in 2016. As Bennet put it the IMO has 18 sets of guidelines – “that is the danger of aspirational legislation”. Some 30 BWM systems are IMO type-approved but not USCG-approved. The IMO upcoming Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting needs to sort it out “or the regulation will not be fit for purpose”.

Tony Knap, Professor of oceanography at Texas A&M University, brought the audience up short by referencing a two-year-old US National Academy of Sciences report that concluded that BWM would not even work to stop alien species invasion. “I wish we had known that 15 years ago,” he quipped.

The sulphur rules were another area of contention. Speaker Claus Hemmingsen, board member at AP Moeller-Maersk said: “Maersk welcomes the sulphur rules but it is tempting for companies not to comply unless there is rigorous enforcement.” What was needed was a level playing field where first movers were rewarded not punished.

Joe Cox, president of the Chamber of Shipping of America, made a similar point in a more general way saying: 'We need regulation because it levels the competitive situation. But give us regulations that work, not regulations that don't work and then you are saying we are doing something wrong."

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