Fear and loathing but mostly frustration at MEPC
Posted on | March 23, 2010 | No Comments
THE IMO is finally getting the hang of greenhouse gas emissions. The answer – at least as far as MEPC 60 is concerned – is to insist that this is a debate had by experts rather than enthusiastic amateurs.
So many papers have been submitted and so many arguments up for debate that MEPC chairman Andreas Chrysostomou has moved to put the debate and the discussion into the working group rather than plenary.
He also suggested that since the IMO committee charged with developing the mechanisms for environmental protection seemingly cannot agree on market-based measures that a group of experts could be empanelled to take the debate outside the meeting.
This went down very badly among the Kyoto non-Annex I countries and other serial doubters that have delayed the IMO debate on MBMs thus far but Chrysostomou is right: this problem needs a different take.
Such an expert group might not come with a better solution – though there is every chance that away from the pressure of an IMO committee, that it could. It might even come to conclusion that the MBMs proposed fall outside the criteria that the IMO has set – fair in operation, easy to administer, fraud-free etc.
What it needs is the freedom to make that decision. This cannot currently be found inside MEPC.
It need hardly be added that the clock is ticking and MEPC has a stack of other work to do, notably ironing out the bugs in the Energy Efficiency Design Index, Operational Index and Ship Efficiency Management Plan. Efthimios Mitropoulos opened the session by suggesting these could be finalised for adoption at MEPC61, wishful thinking to judge by the afternoon’s proceedings.
It must also find time to finalise the Emissions Control Area for North America, implore more countries to ratify the ballast water convention and agree technical guidelines for the ship recycling convention.
These are all making progress but GHGs will not. The afternoon of the first day offered echoes of the Annex VI debate on SOx, NOx and particulate matter: stalemate, punctuated by disagreements, not just on MBMs but on technical and operational measures too.
The IMO actually looks like a body that is aware of the consequences of failing to come up with solutions to achieve GHG reductions. Sadly half the members of its senior environmental committee seem prepared to take the chance of finding out what the alternative might be for themselves – taking the rest of the industry with them.
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