Summary of the 60th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 60) of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization 

The main subject at the session was the shipping industry’s CO2 emissions. A special news item on this issue is available here.

Among the other subjects at the Committee’s meeting were the following:

Air pollution
The Committee designated an area up to 200 nautical miles off the US and Canadian coasts an emissions control area (ECA area). In ECA areas, special requirements are made for SOx (sulphur oxides) and NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions. Ships operating in these areas must use low sulphur content fuels or other methods for reducing NOx and SOx in their exhaust gas.

The regulations will enter into force on 1 August 2011.

Use and carriage of oil in the Arctic area
It was decided to add a chapter to MARPOL, Annex I, prohibiting the use and carriage of heavy oil in Arctic areas. The prohibition will enter into force on 1 August 2011.

Ballast water
The Committee approved a number of systems for cleaning ships’ ballast water. Consequently, eight systems received a “basic approval” and three systems received a “final approval”.

The procedures governing the work of the ballast water working group (GESAMP-BWWG) were discussed, and it was decided that, at the next meeting in May, the GESAMP-BWWG should, as an experiment, carry out discussions with applicants requesting approval of new systems, but only as regards applicants for “final approval”.

Recycling of ships
After the adoption of the IMO Convention on the Recycling of Ships in May 2009, the work drafting a number of guidelines for the Convention was continued. In particular, considerable progress was made with the guidelines for scrapping facilities; in addition, a work plan until 2012 was laid down for the drawing up of the remaining necessary guidelines. A correspondence group was established for the continued work until the next session of the Committee.

New agenda item for the Sub-Committee on Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG)
On the initiative of Denmark, the Committee agreed to include a new item on the agenda of the BLG Sub-Committee: “Drafting of a Code for the Transport and Handling of Limited Amounts of Hazardous and Noxious Liquid Substances in Bulk in Offshore Support Vessels”. The intention was to throw light on the already existing sets of regulations for offshore supply vessels.

Interim guidelines for recordings in the Oil Record Book
Denmark had submitted a proposal for interim guidelines for recording operations in the Oil Record Book. These guidelines were discussed by an informal working group. But since a few member States and industrial organisations were still unsure about the consequences of introducing the interim guidelines, the final decision was postponed until MEPC 61.