Lesley Bankes-Hughes
Last week’s meeting of the IMO’s Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships proposed the establishment of a correspondence group to further develop the draft guidelines on marine fuel lifecycle GHG emissions and carbon intensity.
The Working Group said it noted ‘the urgency of the development’ of such guidelines as expressed by many IMO delegations in order to facilitate investment decisions, and the aim is to finalise the draft guidelines at MEPC 79 in December.
The Working Group agreed that the standalone technical lifecycle guidelines would cover Well-to-Wake, including Well-to-Tank and Tank-to-Wake, emission values, but it highlighted that ‘that any regulatory application of the guidelines would be defined in a separate process.’
The group also agreed that the main ‘initial’ feedstocks to be included in the draft LCA guidelines would not be considered as ‘priority’ fuels, so as ‘to avoid discriminating against other possible feedstocks and pathways and prejudging further discussions.’
The initial feedstocks ‘merely represented the main current and expected future marine fuels,’ said the group.
The short-term measure to reduce the carbon intensity of marine fuels was adopted as amendments to MARPOL Annex VI in June 2021 and includes the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI); annual operational carbon intensity indicator (CII) and CII rating. Last week, the group also considered proposals on how to keep the impacts of the short-term measure under review as well as proposals for the revision of the ship fuel oil consumption Data Collection System (DCS).
The Working Group agreed to initiate a workstream on the revision of the Ship Fuel Oil Consumption Data Collection System. It recommended that interested Member States and international organisations should be invited to submit concrete proposals to a future Working Group session.
The session, held remotely, was attended by more than 430 participants from some 70 Member States, as well as from NGOS in consultative status with IMO.
Ariane Morrissey
