The UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO) took a tentative step towards a plan to cut shipping’s climate emissions earlier this month. Countries meeting at the IMO’s environment committee agreed to ‘headings’ to be included in a strategy, which itself will be the first step of a broader plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The details of each section are to be decided at a meeting in October, and a draft strategy agreed by 2018. However, the strategy will not be finalised until 2023.
Recent improvements in the design efficiency of new ships went into reverse last year, a new independent study has found. According to the CE Delft study the average design efficiency of new bulk carriers, oil tankers and gas carriers was worse in 2016 than in 2015. The share of new ships complying with future efficiency standards also decreased in 2016. The design efficiency of containerships and general cargo ships appears to be stagnating after a period of improvement.
This study and accompanying briefing analyse the development of the design efficiency of ships that have entered the fleet from 2009 to 2016. As the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) of a ship can only be determined in a sea trial, this study uses a simplified version called the Estimated Index Value (EIV). The EIV can be calculated on the basis of publicly available information and the EIVs of ships that entered the fleet between 1999 and 2008 were used to calculate the reference values. The EIV is higher than the EEDI on average, meaning that ships are generally more fuel efficient than the EIV suggests.
The EU and China have reacted to US president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord by agreeing to cooperate to ensure aviation and shipping play their part in tackling climate change. T&E has welcomed the agreement, but fears the US withdrawal will slow down progress in shipping. Such a worrying sentiment was felt within the shipping industry, too.
MEPs have called on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to ban the highly polluting marine fuel ‘heavy fuel oil’ – sometimes referred to as ‘residual fuel’ – from use in Arctic waters. The full European Parliament wants the IMO’s environment committee to discuss outlawing the use of HFO in the Arctic when it meets in July.
Today’s call by the European Parliament for a ban on the use of heavy-fuel oil (HFO) by ships when sailing in the Arctic should be met with swift action by the International Maritime Organisation, sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) has said. The IMO’s marine environment protection committee will next meet in July.
MEPs’ proposal to include shipping in the EU emissions trading system (ETS) from 2023, if the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) fails to agree a global measure to reduce shipping emissions, should be a wake-up call for the UN agency, a senior European Commission official has said. The remarks come as EU governments weigh up what’s described as a necessary ‘insurance policy’ in case the IMO again fails to act.
