IMO Holds Extraordinary Council Session Online as London Meetings Postponed

Several meetings at the IMO's London headquarters have been postponed indefinitely. Image Credit: Ship & Bunker

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has held an extraordinary session of its council online this week, after several meetings at its London headquarters have been postponed and green groups have asked the UN body to find ways to continue its work digitally.

The latest meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee that sets emissions regulations for the shipping industry, due to be held last week, has been postponed indefinitely.

On Tuesday a group of environmental campaigners wrote an open letter to the IMO asking it to reschedule the MEPC meeting in a digital-only format by October and not to push back its sequel next year, in order to keep its decarbonisation agenda on track.

"The IMO Secretariat, on request of the Council, is looking into all available options," a spokeswoman for the IMO told Ship & Bunker Thursday.

"An extraordinary session of the Council has just been held by correspondence, and we will be looking into how and when meetings can be held, as the situation develops."

The outcome of the extraordinary session will be published next week, the spokeswoman said.

Edmund Hughes, the IMO's former head of air pollution and energy efficiency, told Ship & Bunker there were "some technical but mainly procedural" reasons why holding the meetings online may be difficult.

"The main one i would foresee is that the organisation needs to check credentials of officials attending the meeting, as this is to enable those delegates to represent their government at the meeting," Hughes said by email.

"This is important as, for example, Article 16 of MARPOL requires that amendments are adopted by Parties “present and voting”.

"This goes for all decisions of substance, and so procedurally no decisions could really be taken by an electronic meeting as things stand."