MEPC study pollution solutions

The IMO`s MEPC has agreed to a wide ranging study into emissions from merchant vessels – but what is it likely to find? At the Kyoto Summit, a number of countries agreed to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses – for instance the EU will reduce its CO2 output by 8 per cent from the 1990 levels by 2008-2012. However, these agreements exclude emissions from international air and maritime transport which the UN has asked the ICAO (International Civil Airline Organisation) and the IMO to examine.

The IMO delegated the task to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) which has sanctioned a study of airborne maritime emissions. This will include CO2, NOx, particulate matter (PM) and hydrocarbons (HC) emissions, and will also look at market and technical measured for reducing such pollutants in the short, and long term. The MEPC also wants a comparison of emissions from various forms of transport.

The International Chamber of Shipping calculated that last year merchant shipping burnt 140 million tonnes of bunker fuel and produced 420-450 million tonnes of CO2 (2 – 3 per cent of the world`s CO2 production). Jens H Koefoed, environment advisor for the Norwegian Maritime Directorate and head of the delegation to MEPC, says that in CO2 terms, merchant shipping can be environmentally friendly, but it varies greatly from ship to ship. What he sees as important is these emissions against those for equivalent land-based transport.