Guidelines for sulphur limit implementation

The draft guidelines were agreed together with other relevant guidelines to assist industry and Administrations in effectively and uniformly implement the 0.50% sulphur limit, said the IMO, which has already issued ship implementation planning guidance.

EGCS

The Sub-Committee is undertaking a review of the 2015 Guidelines on Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS). The Sub-Committee noted the progress made by the Correspondence Group on review of the 2015 EGCS Guidelines. It agreed to request an extension of the target completion year to 2020 with a view to continuing the work on the review at PPR 7.

It also agreed to forward a new draft Appendix 6 to the EGCS guidelines to MEPC 74, on 13-17 May, for potential use as an MEPC circular. The draft aims to address situations in which there is a malfunction of the EGCS system and provides guidance on temporary indication of ongoing compliance in the case of the failure of a single monitoring instrument, with recommended actions to take if the EGCS fails to meet the guidelines’ requirements.

GESAMP review request

The Sub-Committee reviewed a submission from the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) and heard from Member States that had carried out studies and preliminary studies related to washwater discharge and its environmental impact.

A request was made by the Sub-Committee for the IMO Secretariat to explore the possibility of GESAMP carrying out a review of the relevant scientific literature and overseeing a modelling study of the impacts of discharge washwater from exhaust gas cleaning systems.

The Sub-Committee additionally identified several potential control measures to reduce the impact on the Arctic of Black Carbon emissions from international shipping.