IMO Approves Third GHG Study 2014

ships

IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) approved the Third IMO GHG Study 2014 providing updated estimates for greenhouse gas emissions from ships at its 67th session from 13 to 17 October 2014, at IMO Headquarters in London.

The Third IMO GHG Study 2014 estimates that international shipping emitted 796 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2012, against 885 million tonnes in 2007.

This represented 2.2% of the global emissions of CO2 in 2012, against 2.8% in 2007.

However, the “business as usual” scenarios continue to indicate that those emissions are likely to grow by between 50% and 250% in the period to 2050, depending on future economic and energy developments.

With respect to energy-efficiency measures, the MEPC adopted the 2014 Guidelines on survey and certification of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), updating the previous version to include identification of the primary fuel for the calculation of the attained EEDI for ships fitted with dual-fuel engines using LNG and liquid fuel oil.

The MEPC also adopted amendments to the 2013 Interim Guidelines for determining minimum propulsion power to maintain the manoeuvrability of ships in adverse conditions, to make the guidelines applicable to phase 1 (starting 1 January 2015) of the EEDI requirements.

A correspondence group was established to review the status of technological developments relevant to implementing phase 2 of the EEDI regulatory framework.

The MEPC agreed to develop a data collection system for ships and, having agreed on the general description of the data collection system for fuel consumption of ships, agreed to the re-establishment of an inter-sessional correspondence group to develop full language for the data collection system for fuel consumption that can be readily used for voluntary or mandatory application of the system.

The core elements of the data collection system include: data collection by ships, flag State functions in relation to data collection and establishment of a centralized database by the organization.

Press Release