Coatings legislation moves ahead

Although certain interest groups have endeavoured to put a different interpretation on the results of the proceedings, it is clear that the most recent meeting of the IMO`s marine environment protection committee (MEPC) has moved the industry closer towards a global ban on tin-containing antifoulings.

Despite claims to the contrary in some quarters of the business, alternative technologies to tin-bearing formulations are available. There are products already on the market offering comparable performance to the best conventional antifoulings. While there is currently a premium to be paid for the new, more environmentally compatible underwater coatings, it is probable that increased demand for the `greener` alternatives will eventually ease price levels.

While the politics associated with such issues conducted by IMO often command centre stage, the commercial implications of the debate and new directives are massive, since an estimated 85 per cent of the global merchant fleet uses tin-containing antifoulings.

There have been claims that insufficient consideration has been given to the economic effects of banning TBT paints from the mainstays of vital world trades in commodities, fuel and manufactured goods. Nonetheless, the prevailing view is that environmental risks and problems attributed to tin in particular, and increasingly to biocides in general, are not acceptable.

Even though the means of action are as yet unclear, the legislative intent seems incontrovertible. The stage was set by last year`s recommendations at MEPC42, the meeting of IMO`s specialist committee, that a legally enforceable worldwide ban on the application of all TBT antifoulings should be in place by January 1, 2003. The resolution also called for complete prohibition from all ships` hulls by January 2008.

A legal instrument is now being developed to implement such objectives within the requisite time scale. Also, MEPC is looking to a mechanism that will be able to embrace other biocides and antifouling systems if they are shown in the future to have an unacceptably detrimental effect on the environment.

Proposed legislation governing antifouling products would be the subject of a dedicated convention, independent of existing IMO treaties such as Marpol. After tense discussions in the plenary session of the MEPC43 gathering in London, a roll-call vote was taken of country delegates and a majority decision was expressed to convene an IMO diplomatic conference in 2001 to ratify such a `free-standing` antifouling convention.