ICS: Fuel Efficiency "a Means to Survive"

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday June 19, 2014

Peter Hinchliffe, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), told attendees at a climate change conference Wednesday that the shipping industry must adapt to forces pushing for greater efficiency.

"There is a clear mood to address supply chain efficiency at every stage," he said.

"In particular, the enormous financial pressure of the global recession on freight rates, coupled with virtually year-on-year fuel increases – some 300% over 10 years – has meant that the quest for efficiency is much more than enlightened self-interest and really a means to survive to fight another day."

Hinchliffe said International Maritime Organisation (IMO) rules designed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will also push the industry toward changes.

"We are therefore already on a pathway to deliver ships by 2030 that will be 30% more efficient than those of just a couple of years ago," he said.

However, he said the industry is concerned about efforts by some governments to add market-based measures (MBM) to reduce CO2 emissions, which some feel are more about generating revenues from the industry than reducing emissions.

In particular, the ICS wants to avoid regimes adopted by individual governments rather than globally by the IMO.

"ICS takes the view and has argued strongly that the only acceptable MBM – if one is required at all – is a fuel levy," Hinchliffe said.

He added that the IMO is pausing its debate on MBMs because of disagreements over differentiated responsibility for developing nations and is instead focusing on monitoring and reporting of emissions data, something the ICS supports as long as it does not end up being used for ship indexing measures that unfairly penalise older ships.

"We feel that measuring fuel consumption overall is a good thing and are fairly confident that we have a good story to tell" he said.

The ICS has pushed for the European Union (EU) to hold off on creating its own rules for monitoring and reporting, allowing the IMO to take the lead in creating global standards.