Oceans Day at Durban UN Climate Change Conference (COP 17 / CMP 7) 3 December 2011 Session 4 Progress on Major Oceans and Climate Issues Curbing Air Pollution from Ships, Geo-engineering Issues JO Espinoza-Ferrey Director, Marine Environment Division International Maritime Organization
Briefly IMO Convention adopted by UN Maritime Conference in 1948 IMO established in 1959 Objective: to regulate technical aspects of international shipping, e.g. safety of life at sea and of navigation Today: 170 Member States; with some 50 IGOs and 90 NGOs contributing actively to all of its work 53 global treaty instruments no less than 21 exclusively on environmental protection Objective today: safe, secure, environmentally sound, efficient and sustainable shipping
Curbing air pollution from ships Earth Summit 1992: Agenda 21, chapter 17 on oceans, contains 20 action points concerning: protection of the marine environment from shipping, dumping, offshore sector and ports; pollution in international straits; anti-fouling paints pollution preparedness and response All but one item (nuclear ships) addressed, through regulatory AND capacity building work Paragraph 17.11 invited IMO to address air pollution from ships
Curbing air pollution from ships MARPOL principal IMO Convention on prevention of ship-generated pollution five Annexes (oil, chemicals, packaged goods, sewage, garbage) Annex VI Regulations to prevent air pollution from ships, adopted in 1997 (a few months before KP) with entry into force in 2005 Dealt only with air pollutants (SOx, NOx, ODS), limiting their emission from ships exhaust GHGs were deliberately left out, given KP negotiations But IMO Conference also adopted a resolution calling on the Organization to work on GHG emissions
Curbing air pollution from ships (contd.) On entry into force of Annex VI, technological developments had overtaken regulations, achieving significant reductions in emissions of air pollutants Immediate call for tightening of the regulations with amendments being adopted in 2008. Unanimous support of Governments, industry, environmental interests: IMO at its best! Lowered SOx, NOx content of ships fuel with progressive reductions to 2020 Introduced Emission Control Areas (ECAs) where reductions are even more stringent
Curbing GHGs from ships 2003 following from 1997 Conference resolution, IMO Assembly adopted GHG policies and practices, mandating the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) to draw up a work plan with timetable 2006 MEPC agreed a work plan to address technical, operational and market-based measures (MBMs) to limit or reduce GHG emissions from ships 2009 with good progress on TOMs, MEPC agreed a further specific work plan on MBMs
Breakthrough at IMO July 2011 adoption of amendments to Annex VI to introduce regulations on energy efficiency for ships First ever, global and mandatory energy efficiency standard for an entire industry sector, leading to: reduced fuel combustion and, consequently; reductions in emissions of air pollutants and GHGs, as well as; considerable savings to ship owners and operators throughout the world Amendments adopted by majority of Parties to MARPOL Annex VI, but their representative character augurs well for the environmental integrity and effectiveness of the new regulations
Breakthrough at IMO (contd.) 30 States listed in Annex I to UNFCCC, joined by 19 non-annex I States Developed and developing countries from all regions of the world, including also LDCs and SIDS Some are countries most likely to suffer first from climate change All major flag States (some 80% of the world fleet) Most major ship building nations Both importers and exporters About 75% of emissions from international shipping
Principal measures: Expected benefits Energy Efficiency Design Index, by which new ships are to be built in the future Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan, for operational practices on all ships Newly released LR/DNV study projects emission reductions to be: some 150M tonnes of CO2 annually by 2020 (14% reduction on BAU) some 330M tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030, (23% reduction on BAU) Materials at the back or visit IMO stand (DEC building, booth No. 58)
Additional work by IMO regulatory On technical and operational measures: further development/refinement of the EEDI to cover other types of ships and propulsion systems development of implementation guidelines On MBMs: further examination of proposals on the table (10 from States and organizations), including impacts on developing countries narrowing down the options further development of selected proposals, including legal texts finalizing the desired mechanism and its treaty provisions
Additional work by IMO supporting countries New regulations provide for: assistance for capacity-building transfer of technology With support from donors (ITCP, Republic of Korea), IMO has already started providing technical assistance to developing countries, well in advance of entry into force in January 2013, to ensure global, uniform and effective implementation and enforcement of the new energy efficiency standards for ships
Other climate change action (geo-engineering engineering activities) London Convention/Protocol regimes CCS into sub-seabed geological formations, with prohibition of liquefied CO2 discharges directly into the oceans regulations in force since 2007 Amendments to permit transboundary CCS adopted in 2009 yet to enter into force Ocean fertilization (e.g. addition of nutrients to enhance ocean uptake of CO2 in the atmosphere) As science is yet uncertain, LC/LP Parties have legislated to limit this only for the purposes of legitimate scientific research aimed at trials to prove if the concept works
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