CO2 emissions from ships – latest IMO regulatory developments

imo4 The IMO MEPC’s working group on energy efficiency for ships (EE-WG1) met in London on June 27–July 2 to further develop the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI)
and Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) for ships.

As is well known by now, the EEDI is intended to provide a measure of the energy efficiency of a vessel design, thus pushing the industry towards designing and building ships that will emit less CO2 when in operation. The development of the EEDI has been a protracted process due to both technical challenges and the political difficulties inherent in obtaining an international agreement on anything pertaining to CO2.

The EE-WG1 meeting was convened to work on technical matters only, with the political debates being held in abeyance for MEPC61 at the end of September this year. Further, the EE-WG1 had no decisionmaking powers, with its recommendations and changes being subject to MEPC61 acceptance or rejection. However, as the delegations are broadly speaking the same ones that will make the decisions at MEPC61 it can be expected that the proposals submitted will to a large degree be accepted.

This is not to say that the EEDI as such will be agreed as a mandatory instrument at MEPC61, since there are significant political differences that will need to be settled first.

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