International Maritime Organisation

Nigeria: Imo's New Deal Has No CO2 Emission Reduction Target

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) last Friday agreed to force energy efficiency design standards on new ships from 2013, but the deal did not contain CO2 emissions reduction targets.

It also did not make any move on carbon trading, or on taxing the heavily-polluting bunker fuels used by most ships. This is eventually expected to slow rather than reduce the growth of maritime CO2 pollution.

48 countries voted in favour of adopting a mandatory energy-efficiency design index (EEDI) for new ships at a meeting of the IMO's marine environment protection committee in London on Friday. Five were against and 12 abstained, according to reports.

The measures are now enshrined in Annex VI of the MARPOL Convention covering air pollution from ships and are binding on all 180 member states of IMO.

IMO is the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.

The EEDI will force new ships to meet a minimum level of energy efficiency. This means that ships built between 2015 and 2019 will need to improve their efficiency by 10 percent, which will graduate to 20 percent between 2020 and 2024 and 30 percent for ships delivered after 2024. Under the deal, each new vessel over 400 gross tonnes ordered from 1 January 2013, would require a survey of fuel efficiency and have an International Energy Efficiency Certificate issued.

Studies by IMO indicate that shipping emissions could grow by 150 to 250 percent by 2050 without regulation. The global maritime regulatory body says that shipping currently accounts for around 3.3 percent of global carbon emissions, but other studies put the figure as high as 5 percent.

But developing countries may delay implementation until 2017 or 2019.

A group of countries led by China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa secured a waiver for new ships registered in developing nations.

There are indications that implementation of the EEDI will be delayed from between four and six-and-a-half years from 2013, depending on the nature of the ship's contract, if countries choose to apply the waiver for a newly delivered ship,

Such waiver for some countries could mean that EU shipbuilders, for example, could build and flag a ship in a developing country without having to comply with the new regulation for some time.

For instance, Maersk Line recently dedicated its WAFMAX series of ships to the Asia/Africa route and christened one of them, Maersk Calabar, after a Nigerian City . The vessels' CO2 emission stands at 59 grams per TEU for dry containers and 90 grams for reefers. But its management says both are much lower than the industry standard of 81 grams for dry containers and 115 grams average for reefers.

IMO's GloBallast Program: Has it Met its Expectations? | Marine ...

It is a known fact that the oceanic plants and creatures have been and are threatened by human actions. The oceanic life-forms are also facing a threat on account of the various activities of the shipping industry which is proving as a deterrent to the organisms’ existence and growth. This in-turn has hampered the overall fishery industry.

A grave problem that has become graver in the past decade is that of invasive marine species . These species are located in certain oceanic locations where the rocks and winds act as natural barriers and prevent them from venturing and extending their negative growth. But owing to the constant traffic by way of ships, they get transported to different oceanic locations through ship’s ballast water. This accentuates the problem on a mammoth scale. Statistically speaking, these problem causing organisms form a part of the quartet of ocean pollutants that comprise of: ocean pollution caused due to onshore activities, extensive usage of oceanic resources and unnecessary alterations caused to oceanic surroundings and ecosystem.