NEWS/EVENTS
News Articles
October 14, 2008
Energy efficiency design index to help firms identify the greenest ship designs
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved new guidelines designed to help gauge the energy efficiency of ships. This new guideline will make it easier to identify the ships and operators that offer the most energy efficient means of transporting goods.
Delegates from 168 countries gathered at the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee in London and approved new guidelines for the use of the Energy Efficiency Design Index for New Ships – a voluntary mechanism designed to help designers gauge how energy efficiently their ships will transport cargo.
“It is an extremely complicated equation,” explained Lee Adamson, spokesman for the IMO. “But essentially it establishes an energy efficiency baseline for different types of ships and helps designers work out how to improve the energy efficiency of their designs.”
The energy efficiency operation index is similar to an IMO index designed to help ship operators assess the efficiency of their fleets.
According to the latest IMO research, CO2 emissions from international shipping amounted to an estimated 843 million tonnes, or 2.7 percent of global CO2 emissions, in 2007.
The organization estimated that under a business-as-usual scenario, emissions from the shipping sector will more than double by 2020 and could increase three-fold by 2050.
Further talks on how to best curb emissions from shipping are scheduled to continue early next year, with the intention of presenting a formal action plan to the United Nations prior to December 2009. Then a round of talks about the Kyoto Agreement’s successor takes place in Copenhagen.
However, Adamson admitted there is not a consensus between IMO member countries on how to proceed. Some delegates argue that carbon regulations should fall under the auspices of the IMO and others argue they should form part of a post-Kyoto deal.
Adamson explained there were concerns that any attempt to address shipping emissions through a post-Kyoto deal would prove ineffective, as it would focus on ships registered in developed economies. In fact, the majority of the global shipping fleet is registered in developing economies.
Alongside the ongoing debate over regulation of carbon emissions, the IMO meeting also agreed to a variety of new rules and guidelines designed to tighten caps on emissions of sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter. Other agreements limited pollution from ballast water and established best practices for ship recycling.