Lookout! – Issue 15
21 December 2009
Guidance notice – Issue 17:
Long-range identification and tracking (LRIT) equipment testing
21 December 2009
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Climate change — a challenge for the IMO too!
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations with 167 member states and 3 associate members. The IMO is based in London with around 300 international staff.
The convention establishing the IMO was adopted in Geneva in 1948. The IMO’s main task has been to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping. This has seen the development of numerous significant international safety, security and environmental protection conventions, such as the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) convention, which establishes minimum safety standards on ships, and MARPOL (the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships), which sets out standards for safeguarding the environment from the impacts of shipping.
The IMO plays a key role in ensuring that lives at sea are not put at risk and that the marine environment is not polluted by shipping. This is summed up in IMO’s mission statement: “Safe, secure and efficient shipping on clean oceans”, which is echoed in Maritime New Zealand’s (MNZ) own vision for “safe, secure and clean seas”.
New Zealand has been an active member of the IMO since 1960. In November 2007, New Zealand was elected to the IMO Council, giving us the opportunity to join with states sharing similar flag state responsibility objectives.
A key area of work for New Zealand in the IMO is reducing the impacts of shipping on the environment – addressing areas such as pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, invasive aquatic species and marine disposal of wastes. This activity is consistent with MNZ’s mandate to protect the New Zealand maritime environment, which contains many areas of significant conservation, economic and tourism value.
World Maritime Day is an annual IMO event and an opportunity to draw international attention to maritime issues, such as safety, security and environmental protection. The theme for 2009 is “Climate change – a challenge for the IMO too!”, reflecting the IMO’s commitment to reducing the impact of shipping on the maritime environment.
MNZ marked World Maritime Day with a function in Wellington on 23 September, with an opening speech by the Hon. Steven Joyce, Minister of Transport. The event highlighted some of the initiatives that various New Zealand Government agencies are undertaking to reduce the impact of climate change on the maritime environment.
The New Zealand Government recently set a target of reducing greenhouse gases by 10–20% on 1990 levels by 2020, with world leaders set to discuss emission reduction targets during a global climate change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The aim of the summit will be to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The protocol contains legally binding emissions limitation and reduction targets for developed countries. New Zealand’s obligation under the Kyoto Protocol is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels, on average, over the 2008–2012 commitment period, or take responsibility for any emissions over these levels.
Within New Zealand a range of government agencies and organisations, led by the Ministry for the Environment, are working to address climate change.
Source: IMO.
Through the IMO, the international shipping industry is committed to playing its part to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases.
While international shipping is by far the world’s most carbon-efficient mode of commercial transport, ships (international, domestic and fishing) contribute an estimated 3.3% of world CO2 emissions, with 2.7% of this coming from international shipping. That makes shipping’s emissions from fossil fuels the equivalent of those from the sixth-biggest CO2 emitting country.
IMO projections to 2050 have CO2 emissions growing 2–5% each year. These projections assume market-driven developments in transport efficiency, due to the long-term increase in the cost of energy.
Clearly, something more is required than business-as-usual development and that something needs to be aggressively pursued on an international basis. The good news is that there’s scope for reductions, particularly in the area of CO2 emissions.
In response, at the July meeting of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee, a number of measures were developed for reducing emissions from ships, with an agreed timetable for adoption. These include:
At this stage, these measures only apply on a voluntary basis. Proving more difficult to achieve is agreement on market-based measures, with some countries arguing that these should not be mandatory and should only apply to developed countries.
Governments represented at the IMO have, however, agreed to key principles for the development of regulations to reduce CO2 emissions from ships, so they will:
The international shipping industry fully subscribes to these principles.
While international shipping is by far the world’s most carbon-efficient mode of commercial transport, ships (international, domestic and fishing) contribute an estimated 3.3% of world CO2 emissions, with 2.7% of this coming from international shipping.
Source: IMO and NTM, Sweden.
In 2006, MNZ’s environment team initiated the Climate Change Adaptation Project to look at the potential impacts of climate change on core MNZ business in the decades to come.
The team’s key finding was that with worsening weather patterns caused by climate change (more frequent and intense storms in particular), MNZ would be required to undertake more frequent “business as usual” tasks, such as increased oil spill response and search and rescue operations.
The most likely difference is that the scale of incidents could be greater, with higher numbers of people involved. A hint of what’s to come was glimpsed by Australia during the Pasha Bulker grounding when, during the storm that lashed the Newcastle coast, Sea Confidence and Betis were also in trouble and at risk of grounding.
MNZ is also working though IMO’s London dumping convention to ensure appropriate regulation of marine geo-engineering activities proposed as climate change mitigation (such as ocean fertilisation and carbon capture and sequestration).
The maritime industry in New Zealand, as in other parts of the world, is moving on a number of fronts to reduce shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions, motivated by opportunities for cost reductions and market calls for sustainable practices.
The fishing sector, which is an energy-intensive business, has identified many of these opportunities and initiated a programme built around monitoring and controlling energy consumption, improving the energy efficiency of fishing gear, and information sharing and awareness.
There has recently been an instance of quota sharing where three large companies have co-ordinated their harvesting plans for offshore species, so vessels only travel to and fish undisturbed productive grounds – with improved catch rates. Annual reductions of 1,100 tonnes of fuel have resulted.
On shore, the company Ports of Auckland has tackled energy efficiency across a range of activities – from operational measures looking at how vehicles are driven, to technical fixes like good lighting projects and improved arrangements for supplying electricity to reefer containers. Overall electricity use is reportedly down 50%.
The Tourism Industry Association New Zealand has been working with marine transport operators on improving energy and fuel efficiency. An audit conducted at SeaLink Ferries found significant potential for efficiency gains, and audits will be carried out on Fullers Group and Encounter Kaikoura vessels in the near future.
IMO, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Transport.