Tag: IMO

Spain has become the latest country to accede to IMO’s Cape Town Agreement on fishing vessel safety, significantly boosting the number of vessels needed for entry into force. The entry into force of the 2012 Cape Town Agreement is expected to result in fewer accidents, and a more effective infrastructure for monitoring illegal fishing.

IMO launched a new logo for its Women in Maritime programme, as part of its mission to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The primary objective of the program is to encourage IMO Member States to open the doors of their maritime institutes to enable women to train alongside men and acquire the high-level of competence that the maritime industry demands.

The European Commission adopted a proposal on February 4, to revise the EU system for monitoring, reporting and verification of CO2 emissions from maritime transport. This aims to take appropriate account of the global data collection system for fuel oil consumption of ships established by IMO. The goal of the proposal is to facilitate the harmonious implementation of the EU MRV and the IMO DCS.

As part of its efforts to help African countries improve the sustainability of their maritime sectors and their blue economies, IMO has participated in two major annual maritime security exercises in Djibouti and in Maputo, Mozambique, to help support their initiatives.

IMO is working to prevent accidents that occur when ships are being moored at their berth in a port. A SOLAS regulation that focuses on better protecting seafarers and shore-based mooring staff from injuries during mooring operations, is set to be finalized by the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction.

Mr. Ian Adams has been recently appointed as the Executive Director of the Clean Shipping Alliance 2020 which aims to clarify issues concerning the Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems and assist in the effective enforcement of the upcoming sulphur cap. Mr. Adams anticipates an increase in global shipping costs overnight from 1 January 2020, highlighting that a postponement of the amendments to MARPOL Annex VI is off the table; therefore, the industry needs to get fully prepared for compliance by the end of 2019.

With less than twelve months remaining for the new regulation to take place, ship owners can’t waste time anymore; within 2019, they need to decide on the most appropriate approach for their operations in order to comply with the Sulphur cap and remain commercially sustainable in the long run. So far, there is no silver bullet solution while each option introduces additional challenges to operators. 

'Just-In-Time' operations (JIT) contribute to cutting emissions, by limiting the time vessels passively spend outside ports. Although JIT is helpful to the environment and helps reduce costs, there are multiple operational and contractual barriers to overcome before this could be implemented globally. IMO’s GIA, focusing on the vessels that can already implement JIT, gathered with a variety of industry stakeholders to discuss with what means they can accomplish JIT globally. 

Turkey acceded to IMO's Hong Kong Convention, the treaty for safe and environmentally sound ship recycling, setting a landmark as one of the five major ship recycling countries in the world.

BIMCO informed that a sub-committee under the IMO has forwarded three documents for adoption in June. This development made one step closer to the adoption of a standardised system for electronic navigation. This year’s Navigation, Communication, Search and Rescue sub-committee (NCSR 6) took place from 15-25 January in London.