IMO’s actions on emissions

KEEP IT CLEAN

REGULATIONS • WITH A BROAD ENVIRONMENTAL REMIT, IMO’S MEPC IS MAKING PROGRESS ON EMISSIONS REDUCTION, VESSEL EFFICIENCY AND REVISION OF THE IBC CODE

THE INTERNATIONAL MARITIME Organisation’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) held its 73rd session in London from 22 to 26 October 2018. Much of the work undertaken at the meeting related to anti-pollution programmes that are hogging the headlines these days, not least the looming implementation of the 0.5 per cent limit on sulphur in ships’ bunkers from 1 January 2020 and the issue of plastics pollution in the oceans.

In terms of the sulphur cap, MEPC adopted an amendment that will prohibit the carriage of non-compliant fuel oil for combustion purposes unless the ship has

MEPC’S RECENT WORK HAS INCLUDED DRAFT

AMENDMENTS TO THE IBC CODE, WHICH ARE an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) fitted. It also approved guidelines for vessel owners and bunker fuel suppliers. It also responded to IMO’s agreement that the Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR) should develop a ban on heavy fuel oil for use and carriage as fuel by ships in Arctic waters, based on an assessment of the impacts of such a ban. PPR is due to consider the issue at its sixth session this month. The use and carriage of heavy fuel oil is already banned in the Antarctic and it is recommended in the Polar Code that the same rules are applied in Arctic waters.

In addition, MEPC approved a programme of actions to implement IMO’s strategy on greenhouse gas emissions reductions, examined the next phases of implementation of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), and made further progress on guidance on the approval of ballast water management systems, while recognising that further changes are needed to the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments in light of experience.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR TANKERS Aside from these high-profile discussions, MEPC also looked in detail at some issues of more specific importance to operators of chemical and product tankers. In particular, it approved draft amendments to Annex II of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships (Marpol) to strengthen, in specified sea areas, discharge requirements for tank washings containing persistent floating products with a high-viscosity and/or a high melting point that can solidify under certain conditions. Such products include, for instance, certain vegetable oils and paraffin-like cargoes.

The draft amendments follow concerns about the environmental impact of permissible discharges of such products and would tighten requirements for the discharge from ships of tank washings containing such products.

MEPC also approved draft amendments to the International Code for the Construction and Equipment of Ships carrying Dangerous Chemicals in Bulk (IBC Code), including the draft revised chapters 17 (Summary of minimum requirements), 18 (List of products to which the code does not apply), 19 (Index of Products Carried in Bulk) and 21 (Criteria for assigning carriage requirements for products subject to the IBC Code). These draft amendments are expected to be adopted in 2019, with the next edition of the IBC Code scheduled for publication in 2020.

These draft amendments were also approved by IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), which held its 100th session in London in early December. That meeting also approved a number of amendments and guidelines produced by the Sub-committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers at its session in September 2018, particularly those relating to ships using methanol/ethanol or gases or other low-flashpoint fuels in their propulsion systems. HCB