PortNews (PN):
Mr. Secretary-General, what do you think about the development prospects
of the Northern Sea Route and about the safety level of navigation
there?
Sekimizu: The matter of
safety is of utmost importance for the International Maritime
Organization. Now it is a reality for us to expect that the volume of
traffic over the Northern Sea Route will be increased dramatically over
the coming years. It is important that international standard will be
established at IMO and will be applied for every vessel which may go
through the Northern Sea Route. If you ensure the application of IMO
standard, safety level will be maintained. I’m convinced that IMO
regulation will ensure the maintenance of the safety level for the
navigation over the Northern Sea Route.
PN: Do you expect increasing of shipping activities at the Northern Sea Route?
Sekimizu: I enjoyed the
opportunity to navigate over the Northern Sea Route this summer and I
was really impressed with the situation there: the waterway is free of
ice as far as 90%.The ice-covered area is just only 10% of 1700 miles.
That clearly indicates that in summer time it is possible to allow a
large number of vessels going through the Northern Sea Route. If we
ensure that icebreaker support will be provided then not only vessels
carrying the minerals and oil from Russia to Asian countries but also
the traffic from Asia to Europe will be increased.
PN: What are the prospects for the shipping at the North-West Passage along the Canada coast?
Sekimizu: If you compare
the future possibilities of the Northern Sea Route with the North-West
Route of navigation in the Arctic area, obviously through the costal
areas of Canada: there is a big difference. Based on the information
that ice at the Canadian coast is still accumulated over the area, it is
difficult to navigate even in summer time. Also the Canadian coast is
much more complicated compared with the Northern Sea Route. The element
of national regulation from the Canada is also to be maintained. There
will be a number of different points. As far as I see the forthcoming
five years, the Northern Sea Route will be the main shipping lane for
navigation and passage.
PN: The Polar Code is being
developed by IMO with the participation of Russian experts. How far is
the experience of our country taken into consideration in this work?
When can we expect the new document and what status will it have?
Sekimizu: The experts of
the Russian Federation are already fully attending the IMO meetings and
providing information based on the long years of experience in
navigation in Arctic waters. We need to share the experience of Russian
people over the navigation in the Northern Sea Route. I’m sure that at
IMO meetings the technical information to be provided from the Russian
Federation will be appreciated and that will become a basis for
discussion at IMO.
I really hope that we can settle all
preparatory work for the Polar Code by the next year so that we can
adopt the Polar Code by the end of the next year. The new Code will come
into force in 2016 or in early 2017. This is a possible and realistic
target and I’m sure we can achieve that.
This is going to be a mandatory code to be
implemented at IMO conventions, one is SOLAS convention and another one
is MARPOL convention. We are going to amend both convention and make the
Code mandatory.
PN: Getting off the Arctic subject
in favor of southern shipping routes, we have to acknowledge that the
threat of pirate attacks remains off the coast of Somalia in the Indian
Ocean. How long do you think this region should be patrolled by
international warships? What other anti-piracy measures could be
efficient in your opinion?
Sekimizu: We have been
working very closely with the Navies provided from the European
countries and other regions as well. And also the Russian Federation has
provided naval forces.
Thanks to strong defense by Navies, and
also shipping industry has taken its own preventative measures to be
implemented onboard the commercial vessels, last year we encountered a
serious reduction of piracy and that good direction and good situation
continued so far. I really hope that current situation will continue so
that gradually piracy off the coast of Somalia will disappear.
But at this moment it is important not to
become un-present and we need to maintain the strong level of defense
for international shipping. We need to ensure the Navy will be operating
for some time now, otherwise the pirates may return back to do that
wrong doing. So we need to maintain the naval forces for a while.
I really hope that our collaborative and corporative work will ease the situation with the Somalia piracy.
While I’m touching upon the piracy off the
coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean, still the piracy activity off the
western coast of Africa is very high and we are paying a lot of
attention for anti-piracy measures there. IMO encourages the African
countries to establish a good mechanism of cooperation for anti-piracy
measures similar to that we have established in other regions. We really
hope that African countries will take up strong measures to impose and
IMO will be ready to help them handle the piracy off the coast of
Africa.
PN: What do you think about new
environmental initiatives aimed at introduction of stricter requirements
for shipping in the Baltic Sea? Don’t you think it can result in more
pollution of the environment if cargo shifts to automobile transport
from marine transport with growing cost of service?
Sekimizu: Application of the stringent requirements for NOx is currently at the discussion at IMO.
We have taken into account difficulties
encountered particularly in Russia and the next meeting of the Marine
Environment Protection Committee in spring next year will discuss this
matter. I hope that we will take into account the difficulties
encountered in the Russian Federation and then reflect it into some sort
of a decision to be made at the next MEPC so that we generally maintain
the IMO’s standards, but at the same time the interest of EU people
will be also taken into account. It is up to farther discussion and at
this stage I cannot pre-act what will be the final debate.
As for sulphur, we have adopted MARPOL
Convention amendment. There are two elements involved: by 2015 within
the emission control area (ECA, including the Baltic and the North Seas –
ed.) we have to apply stringent sulphur regulations. As far as I
understand, that could be achieved. The other target is the following:
by 2020 we will impose stringent global requirement to reduce sulphur
emission from ships, which should be applied all over the world. That
may require a careful evaluation regarding weather oil industry could
provide ample amount of low sulphur fuel by that time. I have suggested
that the study of availability of low sulphur fuel should be
accelerated. I’m sure that next year the Marine Environment Protection
Committee will discuss this matter seriously and I hope that we will
carry out important meaningful study for availability of low sulphur
fuel. Sometime into 2015 we will evaluate, for example, how much clear
energy will be made available for international shipping by 2020 and if
the oil industry will be available to provide the required amount of low
sulphur fuel. So we need to evaluate total amount of energy required
for shipping industry by 2020 and then we’ll take a decision of what
should be applied to meet low sulphur regulation by 2020.
PN: How can regional/national
legislative initiatives (like that of NOx emission initiative) influence
the international process of regulating?
Sekimizu: When it comes to
stringent requirements for a regional level, like emission control
area, that has been debated at IMO already and I take into account all
implications to the shipping industry as well as to the countries within
the ECA. That has been done. It is a global process of discussion. In
2008, they came to a conclusion so now it is in the process of
implementation. Then, if we encounter any serious problem, the
established standard should be modified, and this is a kind of activity
of IMO. Until we come to the farther consideration I cannot predict what
will be the outcome of the discussion.
Obviously, the shipping is international,
therefore any regional measures will make an impact on global shipping.
IMO applied this way of a sort of special requirements on top of global
requirements.
In the history of environmental regulation,
a good example is MARPOL convention. As a global regulation it has a
special area concept, where stringent requirements are applied on
special areas. Currently we have adopted 14 particularly sensitive sea
areas where we will apply stringent requirements.
PN: In this case, the decision was
made by IMO globally, everybody participated in the decision making, not
only the costal states.
Sekimizu: Yes, it is a
global decision. For example, let’s take any requirement for air
pollution. Stringent requirements are applied for the Baltic Sea and the
Baltic Sea is surrounded with Russia, Estonia and all those littoral
states like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany... They proposed the
stringent requirement, then that proposal was debated on a global level,
and IMO involving all IMO member governments agreed to accept the
proposal from the regional countries. This is the only way.
Post to be found at:
http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/IMO-SecGen-Discusses-Arctic-Shipping-2013-10-18/
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