The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) working group on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships agreed, on Friday 23 October, on further measures to achieve the IMO's objective of reducing the carbon intensity of international shipping - the amount of GHG released by moving a tonne of cargo or a passenger one kilometre - by 40% by 2030, compared to 2008.
One of these measures provides that the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI), which indicates the ship's energy efficiency relative to a baseline using a reduction factor, will have to be calculated for each ship.
The other flagship measure concerns the introduction of a new Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) system to classify vessels annually from A (low carbon intensity) to E (high carbon intensity) according to their actual performance, with requirements increasing from year to year.
A ship classified E or D for three consecutive years will be expected to submit a corrective action plan to show how the required index (C or higher) will be achieved, according to the IMO.
Environmental NGOs claim these measures are clearly insufficient and in particular regretted the lack of truly binding carbon intensity targets.
These measures will now be submitted for approval to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), which will meet from 16 to 20 November. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)