ICS puts shipowners case at UN Climate Change Conference - ICS - hellenicshippingnews.com

Posted - Wednesday, 30 November 2011 | 00:00 - ICS - hellenicshippingnews.com

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) - the principal international trade association for ship operators representing all sectors and trades and over 80% of the world merchant fleet - has called on delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 17) in Durban, to give the International Maritime Organization (IMO) a clear mandate to continue its work on regulating shipping's CO2 emissions, including the development of Market Based Measures.
ICS explained that shipping is committed to improving efficiency per tonne-km by 20% by 2020 with further significant improvements thereafter, and that the achievement of this goal would be greatly assisted by the recent IMO agreement on technical regulations to reduce shipping's emissions.
Speaking alongside IMO officials on 29 November at a special UNFCCC event on international transport, ICS Director of External Relations, Simon Bennett, said that it was "no secret that Market Based Measures are controversial. However the shipping industry recognizes that the need to prevent climate change is a political challenge as much as a technical one, and that shipping needs to play a constructive part in the discussion about MBMs."
As demonstrated by the recent IMO agreement on technical measures, ICS believes that IMO is eminently capable of continuing its discussions on Market Based Measures which, if governments so decided, could also involve a linkage to any 'Green Fund' that is established by UNFCCC.
However, ICS suggested that the high cost of fuel means that shipowners already have every incentive to improve their efficiency. Governments must also avoid the possibility of modal shift since if excessive costs are added to shipping there could be greater use of less carbon efficient shore-based transport modes which would generate additional CO2.

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Shipping sector may accept price on CO2 emissions - AFP (Google News)

Posted - November 29, 2011 -  AFP (Google News)

DURBAN, South Africa — The world shipping industry could accept a global levy on carbon emissions from merchant ships under a deal that would also channel proceeds to poor countries, according to an announcement at the UN climate talks on Tuesday.
Maritime transport accounts for roughly three percent of world emissions of greenhouse gases.
But, like the aviation industry, it does not have any targeted curbs on this pollution, an omission that green campaigners are fighting to change.
In a joint statement, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), WWF and Oxfam said carbon emissions from merchant ships could be subjected to "market-based measures" as an incentive to reduce greenhouse gases.
Part of the revenue from this could go to a planned Green Climate Fund that, in theory, will provide up to 100 billion dollars a year for developing countries most at risk from climate change.
WWF's director of international climate policy, Keya Chatterjee, said the deal was "an agreement in principle" and some details, including the carbon price, needed to be hammered out in further negotiations in the UN's specialized shipping organization.
The ICS, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the world's merchant fleet, prefers a straightforward levy but the WWF could accept other options, she said.
Chatterjee described the accord as a breakthrough.
Failing to factor in the cost of fossil-fuel pollution from transport was "a subsidy... an enormous failure," she told AFP.
The announcement was made on the second day of talks in Durban under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

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Trade issues in the spotlight on the eve of COP 17 - ICTSD

Posted -  Volume 5 • Number 4 • November 2011 - ICTSD

One word can sum up the outlook for the Durban Conference of the Parties (COP) this year: uncertainty. But that may not be all bad. Last year’s meeting in Cancun, Mexico showed us all that sometimes low expectations may be the best way to get results at climate negotiations. Jump back a year further to 2009, when many observers said that parties meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, were poised to deliver a new binding treaty for climate change cooperation. Instead, great expectations resulted in a mighty flop.
Disappointment in Copenhagen cost many global leaders a good deal of political capital – leaving them unwilling to make such a gamble the following year. But whether pre-COP doldrums prove to be a magic formula for lifting the fog at UNFCCC COPs remains to be seen. The show bill for this year includes several overview agendas and an array of unfinished texts, making it impossible to tell how this year’s climate spectacle will unfold.
Future of Kyoto up in the air
By all accounts, the headliner at this year’s COP is the Kyoto Protocol. Signed in 1997, the Protocol’s first and, to date, only period of implementation – “commitment period” in climate parlance – began in 2008 and will end in 2012. The Protocol envisages a second commitment period, and countries have spent over a decade negotiating the finer details of what the future of the Protocol would be. An array of influencing elements has derailed progress on the next term’s negotiations, and only a handful of redeeming qualities may keep the agreement alive.

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Interferry claims low-sulphur timetable is ‘mission impossible - hellenicshippingnews.com

 Posted - Tuesday, 29 November 2011 -

Trade association Interferry says that ferry operators in northern Europe face a near-impossible choice in trying to meet the 2015 deadline for ultra-low sulphur emissions from bunker fuel.The association also warns that the low-sulphur legislation will prompt an environmentally damaging modal shift from short-sea to overland transport and pose severe financial implications for the overall European economy.Under pending IMO and soon to be agreed European Union (EU) environmental requirements, vessels operating in the Baltic, North Sea and Channel Emission Control Areas (ECAs) will have to comply with a 0.1% limit on fuel sulphur content.
Interferry says it acknowledges ferry operators’ responsibility to reduce emissions and supports the move to lower sulphur limits globally by 2020 - but claims that the 2015 timescale is ‘mission impossible´ due to unsustainable cost increases. It argues that, despite the ferry industry’s efforts to develop alternative technologies and feasible alternative fuels, abatement technologies and financial support will not be available or sufficient enough to avoid a modal shift from sea to road. These alternatives are the elements in a ‘toolbox’ of technical and financial solutions proposed by the European Commission (EC).
The toolbox suggests the use of ‘clean’ LNG fuel or, for vessels that continue to run on heavy fuel oil, the use of scrubbers - exhaust gas cleaning systems. It also points operators towards EU funding initiatives and state aid. Interferry responds that these are not realistic options because:
• it is widely recognized in Europe that LNG is only an option for new vessels due to the prohibitive cost of converting existing vessels, and in any case the LNG fuel supply infrastructure is inadequate
• scrubber technology is not a ‘miracle cure’. The association notes that ferry operators are pleased to have contributed financially and operationally in developing the technology and says it is a solution that seems to be able to remove sulphur particles from the exhaust gases on some ships. However, a new Interferry feasibility study covering 108 vessels from six leading operators reveals that scrubbers would not be technically or financially viable for 60% of the existing fleet. Furthermore, trial installations among association members have shown that it will not be possible to have scrubbers in operation in time for 2015 for the other 40%

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New environmental marine regulations to impact shipping in 2012 - hellenicshippingnews.com

Posted - Monday, 28 November 2011 | 17:27 - hellenicshippingnews.com

August of next year will see some major changes for marine navigation. It’s when the North American ECA will come into force, introducing a 1% sulphur restriction, in line with the Baltic and North Sea Emission Control Areas (ECAs). According to London-based shipbrokers Gibson, this change is expected to have a significant impact on shipping. “The sulphur level in all ECAs is due to be further reduced to a 0.1% sulphur fuel limit from January 2015, which again is likely to have a major impact. Beyond this, the next major issue is the proposed IMO legislation shifting all bunkers to less than 0.5% sulphur, due to be introduced globally in 2020. However, it is highly unlikely that there will be sufficient availability of low sulphur fuel oil to meet this requirement by 2020 and the IMOs review process planned for 2018 is almost certain to delay the introduction of this low sulphur requirement until 2025.
At this time the reduction could leave owners with the decision to effectively rule out the use of all residual fuel, switching to low sulphur fuels such as distillate (with even LNG being discussed). However, the use of new technologies like scrubbers to meet the strict sulphur regulations may offer an alternative, although pilot projects suggest that current solutions may not yet be commercially viable. Nonetheless, with low sulphur prices as much as $80/tonne above high sulphur earlier this year, there could be a strong economic incentive to push these new technologies forward. Whilst there is huge uncertainty surrounding the scale of impact on shipping, it appears the only certainty is that this issue is not going to go away” said Gibson in its latest weekly report.
It’s worth noting that when the IMO (MARPOL Annex VI) capped today’s level of allowed sulphur content in marine fuels at 4.5% in 2005, the impact on bunker fuel availability was limited as few cases of heavy fuel oil (HFO) exceeded this sulphur cap. Gibson also mentioned that “following political pressure to further reduce sulphur emissions from shipping, a new set of sulphur requirements within MARPOL Annex VI are going to be implemented through the timetable outlined below. The next step will be introduced on 1st January 2012, when the global sulphur cap will be reduced to 3.5%. Whilst this may cause some tightness in availability at Fujairah and some Far East locations, it again appears manageable and likely to have only a limited impact” said Gibson.

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Review of Maritime Transport 2011 - UNCTAD

Posted - November 22, 2012 - UNCTAD

Highlights

More than 80 per cent of international trade in goods is carried by sea, and an even higher percentage of developing-country trade is carried in ships.
The Review of Maritime Transport, an annual publication prepared by the Division on Technology and Logistics of the UNCTAD secretariat, is an important source of information on this vital sector. It closely monitors developments affecting world seaborne trade, freight rates, ports, surface transport and logistics services, as well as trends in ship ownership and control and fleet age, tonnage supply and productivity.
The Review contains a chapter on legal and regulatory developments and each year includes a special chapter analyzing a selected topic in depth. In 2011, the focus is on the participation of developing countries in different maritime businesses.
Key developments reported in this year´s Review include the following:

• After contracting in 2009, international shipping experienced an upswing in demand in 2010, and recorded a positive turnaround in volumes, especially in the dry bulk and container trade segments. Total seaborne trade reached an estimated 8.4 billion tons in 2010.
  
• The year 2010 saw record deliveries of new tonnage, 28 per cent higher than in 2009, resulting in an 8.6 per cent growth in the world merchant fleet. The fleet reached almost 1.4 billion deadweight tons (dwt) in January 2011, an increase of 120 million dwt over 2010. New deliveries stood at 150 million dwt, against demolitions and other withdrawals from the market of approximately 30 million dwt.
  
• The price of new-buildings was lower for all vessels types in 2010, reflecting market views that in the short term, the capacity of the world fleet is sufficient to meet world trade.
  
• World container port throughput increased by an estimated 13.2 per cent to 517 million 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, in 2010, after stumbling briefly in 2009. The UNCTAD Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI) reveals that China maintains its lead as the single most connected country. It is followed by Hong Kong (China), Singapore and Germany. In 2011, 91 countries increased their LSCI ranking over 2010, 6 saw no change, and 65 recorded a decrease.
  
• In 2010, the rail freight sector grew by 7.2 per cent to reach 9,843 billion freight ton kilometers (FTKs) The road freight sector grew by 7.8 per cent in 2010 over the previous year, with volumes reaching 9,721 billion FTKs.

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IMO piracy and emission focus - Maritime Journal

Posted November 22, 2011 - Maritime Journal

IMO secretary general, Efthimios E.Mitropoulos told delegates at the 27th IMO assembly this week that piracy and ships emissions have been central themes of the organisation’s work this year.

In his opening address to the assembly, Mr Mitropoulos, said that the escalation of piracy had prompted IMO to make combating it an important issue this year.
An action plan devised in collaboration with the shipping industry and seafarer organizations is being implemented. Although the number of successful pirate attacks has dropped to less than 20% this year, as of last week 15 ships were still being held in Somalia – an indication that the situation is still serious.
 
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