Brussels, 09/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 February, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc met with Kitack Lim, new Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), to discuss the priorities of the shipping sector, including decarbonisation of the sector.
The Commission repeated its desire to work towards a compulsory global system for the collection and reporting of emissions data from ships, in line with the agreement reached at the UN climate conference (COP 21) in Paris in December last year, even though that agreement did not apply to either the aviation or the shipping sector (see EUROPE 11453).
Ahead of the Paris conference, the European Parliament agreed a position with a view to the swift adoption of measures to reduce CO2 emissions from the shipping sector from as early as 2016, a stance rejected by players in the sector. ECSA, the European Community Shipowners' Association, said at the time that such provisions were unrealistic (see EUROPE 11413).
The IMO recently adopted the energy efficiency design index (EEDI) which requires that all vessels built after 2025 be 30% more efficient than those built in the 2000s.
Other matters on the agenda for discussion by Bulc and Lim were passenger ship safety and trade facilitation. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)