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Craig Eason - Wednesday 2 July 2008
Light at the end of the tunnel in CO2 emissions debate. LAST week’s Oslo meeting on green house gases has made limited progress in developing the technical basis for how shipping should reduce CO2 emissions. The week long agenda in the Norwegian capital included developments of a design index for new vessels, the development of an operational index and the possibilities of implementing some form of market based measures to reduce CO2 emissions. The meeting was attended by more than 200 delegates from member states and industry organisations. Delegates told Lloyd’s List that progress was made in the development of the design and operational indexes, although there were no final conclusions, with any recommendations being passed to the Autumn meeting of the marine environment protection committee for approval. “It’s early days, and if you look for conclusions you will not get any,” commented one delegate. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and its not the oncoming train,” said another. Delegates however said there was disappointment that discussions on market based measures, such as the use of levies or trading schemes, failed to make good ground. Submissions from a number of European countries had hoped to stimulate discussion on market based measures, possibly some form of bunker levy or an emission trading mechanism. However with disagreement about the application of these, there was no clear conclusion as to whether any such instrument should apply to all ships, regardless of registration, or only to those registered in countries that are party to, and listed in Annex I of, the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change. The lack of agreement came despite the opening speech of the meeting, IMO secretary general Efthimios Mitropoulos, who told delegates he hoped that any work would be made to apply to all of shipping, rather than just the 25% party to UNFCC annex I. Despite making little headway on market based measures, the meeting has developed the complex formula, methodology and provisional legislative text for a mandatory design index for new ships. This formula, once finalised, will serve as a mandatory fuel efficiency tool to be applied at the design stage of a new vessel. It will allow designers to input and compare variables such as ship type, propeller design and waste heat recovery systems, along with optimum speed to determine CO2 emissions. The draft formula has now gone out to member states and observer organisations to test its robustness prior to MEPC in October. MEPC will also decide on minimum levels and the frequency with which the limit will be tightened. The meeting also discussed and developed the current CO2 operational index and best practices for voluntary implementation. This index has been used by a number of member states since its adoption in 2005 and has been subject to a number of developments. It is likely that the operational index will remain a set of voluntary guidelines. The results of the Oslo meeting will now be passed to the October MEPC, with a subsequent GHG working group meeting after that not being ruled out by Mr Mitropoulos, who wants to see the IMO develop CO2 regulations for shipping by the time the UNFCCC meets in Copenhagen next year for discussions on the next commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol which expires at the end of 2011.
Light at the end of the tunnel in CO2 emissions debate. LAST week’s Oslo meeting on green house gases has made limited progress in developing the technical basis for how shipping should reduce CO2 emissions. The week long agenda in the Norwegian capital included developments of a design index for new vessels, the development of an operational index and the possibilities of implementing some form of market based measures to reduce CO2 emissions. The meeting was attended by more than 200 delegates from member states and industry organisations. Delegates told Lloyd’s List that progress was made in the development of the design and operational indexes, although there were no final conclusions, with any recommendations being passed to the Autumn meeting of the marine environment protection committee for approval. “It’s early days, and if you look for conclusions you will not get any,” commented one delegate. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and its not the oncoming train,” said another. Delegates however said there was disappointment that discussions on market based measures, such as the use of levies or trading schemes, failed to make good ground. Submissions from a number of European countries had hoped to stimulate discussion on market based measures, possibly some form of bunker levy or an emission trading mechanism. However with disagreement about the application of these, there was no clear conclusion as to whether any such instrument should apply to all ships, regardless of registration, or only to those registered in countries that are party to, and listed in Annex I of, the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change. The lack of agreement came despite the opening speech of the meeting, IMO secretary general Efthimios Mitropoulos, who told delegates he hoped that any work would be made to apply to all of shipping, rather than just the 25% party to UNFCC annex I. Despite making little headway on market based measures, the meeting has developed the complex formula, methodology and provisional legislative text for a mandatory design index for new ships. This formula, once finalised, will serve as a mandatory fuel efficiency tool to be applied at the design stage of a new vessel. It will allow designers to input and compare variables such as ship type, propeller design and waste heat recovery systems, along with optimum speed to determine CO2 emissions. The draft formula has now gone out to member states and observer organisations to test its robustness prior to MEPC in October. MEPC will also decide on minimum levels and the frequency with which the limit will be tightened. The meeting also discussed and developed the current CO2 operational index and best practices for voluntary implementation. This index has been used by a number of member states since its adoption in 2005 and has been subject to a number of developments. It is likely that the operational index will remain a set of voluntary guidelines. The results of the Oslo meeting will now be passed to the October MEPC, with a subsequent GHG working group meeting after that not being ruled out by Mr Mitropoulos, who wants to see the IMO develop CO2 regulations for shipping by the time the UNFCCC meets in Copenhagen next year for discussions on the next commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol which expires at the end of 2011.
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