Environmental Group Lambasts IMO For Lack of Environmental Leadership

The Clean Shipping Coalition accused the IMO of exaggerating the success of its emission-reduction efforts.

Environmental organization Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) has released a scathing response to an International Maritime Organization (IMO) statement on environmental regulations, accusing the IMO of exaggerating its efforts to reduce emissions in the shipping sector.

The CSC said that based on an earlier statement by IMO Secretary General Koji Sekimizu, "the IMO, left to its own devices, would be unable to show the sort of leadership that the industry needs if it is to prepare for the future and play a proper role in tackling climate change."

In particular, the CSC attacked the IMO's assertions that its Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) had helped raise ship efficiency standards, arguing that the IMO had chosen a low baseline, "thereby guaranteeing that ships built today don't have to be much better than those built in the 1980s."

The sector's recent reduction in emissions was also largely due to the introduction of slow-steaming during a recession period, which the environmental group said meant that the IMO had little impact on those results. 

CSC President John Maggs also criticized Sekimizu's call for world leaders to decide against a hard emissions cap in the shipping sector. 

"By dismissing any measures that might have an impact on the volume of shipping, the Secretary General is saying that putting a price on shipping's carbon emissions can never play a role in controlling its emissions," said Maggs.

"With that statement he puts the shipping sector lagging behind even the oil industry that has issued a call for a global carbon price."

Last week, Ship & Bunker reported that the IMO had urged for any decisions about global shipping's role in climate change to be conducted under its leadership.