please find below a brief summary of the expert Working Group meeting on reducing GHG emissions from ships (WG Ships) under the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP).
ECCP is the European Commission’s main instrument to bring together all relevant stakeholders, to discuss and prepare the further developments of the EU’s climate policy.
The forming of WG Ships is based on the commitment in the Climate and Energy legislation where the European Parliament and the Council have requested the European Commission to come forward with a proposal to include international maritime emissions in the EU’s reduction commitments should there be no sufficient international agreement addressing these emissions through the IMO and/or UNFCCC by the end of December 2011. The proposal is scheduled to be tabled in the first quarter of 2012.
WG Ships consists of:
- experts from Member States
- participants from the European Commission and the European Parliament
- NGO representatives
- representatives from shipping trade associations & organizations
- representatives from some selected research institutes.
The first meeting was held in Brussels on 8th and 9th of February. The undersigned participated on behalf of InterManager.
The establishing of this expert group now was seen as an initiative by the EU Commission to step up the pressure on IMO to make progress in its regulatory efforts with regard to CO2 (MEPC 62 in July 2011).
All participants in the meeting agreed that a global regulatory regime was the preferred solution, but few were convinced that this would be the result. The danger of regional initiatives (with conflicting requirements) is significant. On behalf of InterManager I voiced the concern regarding a potential undermining of IMO’s authority as the main regulating body for international shipping.
Another crucial question is: What is sufficient progress? No representatives from EU were willing (able?) to give a clear answer.
Main topics in the first meeting were:
- Scope (which emissions to cover)
- Monitoring
- Enforcement
None of these topics were concluded due to short time for meeting preparations. The topics will be discussed again in the next meeting after review of submissions in writing from the participants in the period up to the next meeting (April or May). Hence, there are little more to report at this point in time.
Best regards
Svein Sorlie
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