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IMO urged to focus on developing global CO2 reporting system

IMO urged to focus on developing global CO2 reporting system
The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) will seek to make progress on the development of a global system of monitoring and reporting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from ships, when the committee meets on 31 March.

London-based International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which has made a detailed submission on the issue to the MEPC meeting, supports the emissions monitoring system.

ICS explained that it supports a global system, provided that the mechanism is simple to administer, is primarily based on fuel consumption and that the system itself will not be used for the development of a full blown Market Based Measure.

“ICS believes that the question of whether IMO should eventually develop a mandatory system of energy indexing for existing ships – to which ICS is currently opposed – should be left open until after a mandatory CO2 emissions reporting system has been established, trialed, and the results evaluated,” said Simon Bennett, director external relations of ICS.

“The successful development of a global system will require the support of all IMO member states, including nations such as China. In order to make progress and discourage regional regulation, we think that the MEPC should initially focus on how information about emissions should be collected before launching into detailed discussions about efficiency indexing of ships, on which there is little global consensus,” Bennett continued.

“If they so wish, IMO member states can always return to the question of ship indexing once a CO2 monitoring system has been established.”