A shipowners guide to complying with CO2 emissions regulations: market-based measures - Lloyd's List

Posted - March 3, 2013 - Lloyd's List

Mandatory and potentially mandatory CO2 reduction rules
The international Maritime Organization has developed two mandatory regulations aimed at helping reduce the CO2 emissions from individual vessels. These are the energy efficiency design index and the ship energy efficiency management plan.
It is still working on a third, a so called market based measure, which will apply across the global fleet.
The two agreed CO2 regulations are the first such rules for any industry and together they form the International Energy Efficiency Certificate, with vessels built or ordered before January 1, 2013 only required to have the SEEMP.

Market-based measures
This is a can of worms. A market based measure effectively means using a system to penalise the worst CO2 emitters, and possibly rewarding those that perform well.
The IMO is in the throes of discussing options for a MBM at that can be applied to shipping. There are a number of options it is whittling down, but basically they fall into three categories.
There is the idea of an emission trading scheme (The European Union’s on-going scheme is one example), there is the option of establishing a levy on all bunker fuels and using this to create a fund that helps in CO2 mitigation.
Then there is the option of using an efficiency index to establish a vessel’s performance and penalise it if it is a poor performer. All have their supported and al have their critics, but while the global debate on how society as a whole is stuck at the UNFCCC, development at the IMO on shipping’s solution will likely remain slow.
One recent development is the European Union’s decision to talk a little more constructively with the IMO rather than pushing ahead with assessing it sown regional solution for shipping.
This has led to a decision to assess the global CO2 emissions form shipping, an uncontroversial exercise that could at least help in the discussion over how much shipping should be expected to contribute to a global solution – if one is ever found.

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