IN 1408 – IMCA engages in energy efficiency discussions at IMO

The 72nd session of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 72) was held from 9 to 13 April 2018, at the IMO headquarters in London.

IMCA holds consultative status at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which is the specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) responsible for regulating shipping. In this regard, IMCA has always taken an active role in the work of the IMO since it first joined the Organisation in 1999.

A critical subject today, which is attracting a lot of global attention, concerns the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from ships. The IMO strategy in this regard is organised by the highly authoritative Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) and includes a data collection exercise for fuel oil consumption of ships commencing on 1 January 2019. Under the data collection system, ships of 5,000 gross tonnage and above are required to collect consumption data for each type of fuel oil they use, as well as other specific data including proxies for “transport work”. This is will be the first step of a three-step approach: (1) data collection, (2) data analysis in autumn 2020, followed by (3) decision-making on what further measures, if any, are required in spring 2022.

In July 2017, IMCA invited the committee to consider the challenges of attempting to define “transport work” proxies for offshore and marine contracting vessels by submitting paper MEPC 71/6/2. The committee noted the information and invited IMCA to submit proposals on how to deal with offshore and marine construction ships under the IMO data collection system. To this end, IMCA collected and analysed data from a sample population of 66 DP vessels operated in 2017 by its board member companies. This initiative has helped considerably to explain in a factual and realistic way the particular power needs and fuel consumption cycles of DP ships, in comparison with the general shipping market. IMCA engaged with IOGP who sponsored and supported our paper.

Many IMO Member States supported our paper MEPC 72/6/1 and were of the view that a uniform approach should be developed to address ship types for which “transport work” proxies are not currently available and appropriate. IMCA is hopeful that its MEPC 72 submission will be useful to the IMO in assessing future fuel efficiency metrics and looks forward to continuing discussions in an effective and cooperative manner at the next MEPC 73 meeting in October 2018.