SSI: Industry Reputation at Stake Following MEPC 69 "Failures"

SSI CEO Alastair Fischbacher says IMO is at risk of having emissions reduction measures taken out of its hands.

The Sustainable Shipping Initiative today said the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)'s Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC 69) last week "failed to achieve the required minimum outcome" to tackle emissions from shipping.

"While some progress has been made, the failure to agree a process for emissions reduction puts significant pressure on generating a positive outcome at MEPC 70 in October.  The shipping industry cannot go to COP 22 in Morocco without this," said Alastair Fischbacher, CEO, the Sustainable Shipping Initiative.

"Not only will it damage the industry's reputation, it also runs the risk of external regulators taking the matter into their own hands and circumnavigating the IMO, which no-one in the industry wants to see."

The comments add to what has been a deeply divided appraisal of MEPC 69's achievements.

Following shipping's omission from last year's COP21 climate deal, IMO had been called upon to take leadership on the matter at MEPC 69, and shipping groups have joined the IMO in hailing what they see as "significant progress" on the matter made last week.

In contrast, SSI joins green groups saying the progress simply falls short of what was required, with Transport & Environment (T&E) and Seas At Risk having already said MEPC 69's efforts amount to the IMO managing only to "kick the can down the road to its next meeting in October."

One thing IMO and SSI did see eye to eye on was progress on a bunker data collection system, and "good progress on the agreement of the specification of this system."

"However results will not be available for a number of years yet, potentially delaying the action required and increasing the stringency of measures that will be needed," SSI added.

Fischbacher concluded by saying that, "Although the debate at MEPC 69 has taken a step forward, it is not substantive enough and falls short of both external expectations and even internal ambition from a large number of the members.

"A number of parties, including two of the three biggest flag registries, were supportive of the IMO developing a framework for emissions reduction as soon as possible. But this was not enough to counter some strong opposition to proposals and in some cases to any further work."

The European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) will presumably not share the SSI's concerns over progress; ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven said the progress "confirms the unique leadership of IMO to tackle the growth of greenhouse gas emissions from our industry."