on the agenda
››› of UNCLOS with its carefully agreed balance between the rights of nations.” One observer commented to Marine Propulsion after the event that much of the UN’s current agenda “seems to be determined by environmentalist organisations, so there must be a concern that the supposedly non-shipping matters might include seabed mining and even deep sea oil and gas extraction.” If that were to occur, he argued, “that would impact upon the number and type of offshore ships that would be needed and might even lead to the IMO losing the authority to determine matters currently covered by Marpol.”
He expressed concern that, while “the present system at the IMO is not perfect, it is at least led in the main by the interests of the shipping industry. Were that situation to change, the impact on shipping in matters such as ballast water treatment and exhaust emissions might become much more onerous and expensive than it already is.”
MRV is alive and kicking A disagreement between the European Commission and the European Parliament over the scope and timing of monitoring, reporting
and verification (MRV) of CO2 emissions from shipping, could see more ships and NOx brought into the EU scheme and an earlier start date. The original proposals from the European Commission last June proposed that a directive
covering monitoring of CO2 emissions should be adopted in 2015 and in force from 2018. Under it, all vessels over 5,000gt would be obliged to report emissions based on bunker consumption verified by bunker delivery notes, but the European Parliament has sought to impose more stringent conditions including mandatory monitoring equipment installed on all ships. In late January, members of the European
Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee agreed on a compromise position that lays the foundation for
a global measure to reduce CO2 emissions from international shipping. The compromise position adopted by the European Parliament essentially enlarges the scope of the initial commission proposal for an EU law on the matter. According to the European Parliament, the MRV system
should not only monitor CO2 but also NOx and the threshold should be lowered from 5,000gt to 400gt. The parliament also wants the adoption date brought forward to this summer. A statement by the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) issued after the parliament’s decision said that the EU might actually be undermining its own efforts
to pave the way for an agreement on CO2 at the IMO. “We realise that the position taken by the European Parliament is a basis for
12 I Marine Propulsion I April/May 2014
MOL Comfort report expected soon A final report on the loss of the MOL Comfort, the five-year old, 8,110 teu container ship that broke in half and sank last year, is expected to be made in August, according to a statement made in March by the ship’s class society, Japan’s ClassNK.
It led the Committee on Large Container Ship Safety set up last August by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism in response to the casualty and which produced an interim report that was released last December; with an English version released in March.
In addition to compiling the results of the Committee’s investigation, the Interim Report also proposed future tasks for investigation and analysis. In order to carry out these tasks, ClassNK established a new Investigative Panel on Large Container Ship Safety which is chaired by Professor Yoichi Sumi of Yokohama National University, and composed of leading experts from shipowners, shipbuilders, and
negotiation with the Council of Ministers” said Patrick Verhoeven , ECSA secretary general. “We are however concerned about several of the contents, namely the inclusion of other emissions and the lowered threshold to 400gt, which might prove to be an obstacle for a speedy agreement at IMO level.”
ECSA’s concerns over the inclusion of NOx
stems from the fact that, unlike CO2, NOx cannot be calculated from fuel consumption alone and continuous monitoring would require a capital outlay on expensive equipment. “EU member states have however given a clear political signal that any solution to curb
global CO2 emissions must result from an international agreement at IMO level” added Mr Verhoeven, referring to a joint submission to the IMO Marine Environment Protection
academic institutions. The first session of the Panel was held on 21
February and the members agreed to carry out the following course of action: • Investigate the possibility of casualty occurrence;
• Conduct onboard measurements of container ships in operation in order to verify actual hull structure responses and acting wave loads; • Consider and examine large container ship safety.
The panel plans to meet numerous times over the coming months to evaluate the investigative and analysis work and expects to release its findings by the end of August. The results will also be reported to the Committee on Large Container Ship Safety. In a separate development, IACS has established a new project team to address large container ship safety, which also began working in February and is also chaired by ClassNK. • Read the interim report via
www.tinyurl.com/MOLC-rep
Committee, made by the EU member states and the European Commission, which proposes the key elements for a system to collect data on
CO2 emissions and energy efficiency of ships. In March, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) organised a seminar In Ålesund, Norway for senior officials of maritime administrations where it 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’ director of external relations, Simon Bennett, said: “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.” Mr Bennett went on to say that the successful development of a global system will require the support of all IMO member states, including nations such as China. To make progress and discourage regional regulation he thought 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. “If they so wish, IMO member states can always return to the question
of ship indexing once a CO2 monitoring system has been established,” he said. Referring to the EU discussions, Mr Bennett
Simon Bennett (ICS): “It is unfortunate that the debate has been complicated by the parallel proposal from the European Commission” (credit: ICS)
remarked: “It is unfortunate that the debate has been complicated by the parallel proposal from the European Commission for a unilateral regional system of CO2 reporting. MP
www.mpropulsion.com
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