MEPC 74: IMO Agrees to EEDI Changes, but No Speed Limits

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Friday May 17, 2019

Despite a big public push to implement speed limits for ships ahead of the 74th session of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC74), the meeting concluded today without moving forward with any of the proposals.

Climate groups and Shipping CEOs were among those who had been pressing for the measure as part of efforts to reduce industry GHG emissions.

But after two weeks of discussions that focused mainly on procedural issues, IMO did agree to keep the measure on the table, with speed reduction and speed optimisation to be considered in one of three packages to be worked on further at its next GHG working group in November.

Ultimately, there was no progress on any of 15 candidate measures put forward to work towards the IMO 2030 GHG reduction target.

However, minor but meaningful changes were made to the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) framework, bringing forward improvement measures for a number of ships.

“IMO’s decision to move up and tighten energy efficiency targets for some new ships is a modest but necessary step to combat climate change. Next, IMO will consider energy efficiency measures for
existing ships to reduce emissions in the near-term,” said Dan Rutherford, marine program director at International Council on Clean Transportation.

MEOPC 74 took place in London.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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