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INTERTANKO Council Meeting
16 November 2016
10:00 am
Institute of Directors, London
Speech by Kitack Lim, Secretary-General
International Maritime Organization
Good morning Mr. Chairman, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,
It’s a pleasure to be with you today and I am grateful for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you on the occasion of your Council meeting.
Let me say first of all that the contribution made by INTERTANKO to the regulatory process at IMO has been of tremendous value over many decades. Your input is always clear, precise and, invariably, moves the process towards a better outcome. I know I speak for the IMO Member States when I commend you for such active and positive engagement. Itreally is very much appreciated and I look forward to it continuing into the future.
On the future of shipping, we have challenges, but we all know that shipping is a cyclical industry, and the shipping market is under greater commercial pressure than it has been in the past.
At IMO, our mission is to promote safe, secure, environmentally sound, efficient and sustainable shipping through cooperation. And we set about this in two ways. First, we develop and adopt the highest practicable standards of maritime safety and security, efficiency of navigation and prevention and control of pollution from ships. These standards apply equally throughout the industry, thereby preventing anyone from gaining an advantage either by cutting corners or by imposing unilateral requirements.
And, second, we back this up with an extensive programme of technical assistance and capacity building, to ensure that, once adopted, the standards can be implemented evenly and effectively.
It is theframework of IMO standards and regulations that enables shipping to operate safely, securely, cleanly and efficiently.
I spoke a few moments ago of challenges; and perhaps the fundamental challenge that we, as a regulatory authority, and you, as tanker owners and operators, face is that of ensuring the industry can remain sustainable while meeting the increasingly stringent demands of global society in terms of safety and environmental performance. The world is no longer prepared to accept services or industries that are simply cost-effective. We now demand them to be safe, green and clean, as well as efficient.
This is a journey that we have been on for some time, and you only have to look at the significant improvements in casualty and oil spill incidents from tankers over several decades to see that, together, we have had considerable success in this regard.
Yet, still, we seek further improvements. The most recent meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), for example, saw a number of significant steps forward and I would like to share my thoughts on some of those with you.
The Committee achieved successful and solid progress in relation to the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions. In an important milestone on the road to a sustainable future, it adopted amendments to MARPOL Annex VI on mandatory requirements for ships to record and report data on their fuel consumption; it also approved a ‘roadmap’ for developing a comprehensive IMO strategy on reduction of GHG emissions from ships that will see an initial strategy developed by 2018; it completed the review of technological developments relevant to implementing phase two of the Energy Efficiency Design Index or EEDI requirements from 2020 (other than ro-ro cargo ships and ro-ro passenger ships); and took a decision to start a thorough review on EEDI phase three requirements– including its earlier implementation – and the possibility of establishing a phase four.
These achievements, I believe, truly reflect the Organization's strong commitment to contributing to the ambitious and important goals of the Paris Agreement – and that IMO continues to lead in delivering on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping. This tangible progress was reported to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Marrakech, Morocco, earlier this month.
It is not important whether we say we can make it in two or three years: what is more important is that we can establish a concrete plan not too far from now and how to implement that.
Furthermore, in a landmark decision for both the environment and human health, the MEPCagreed to set 1 January 2020 as the implementation date for a significant reduction in the global cap on the sulphur content of the fuel oil used by ships, from the 3.5% limit currently in place to a significantly lower limit of 0.5%.
Predictions have suggested this may prevent many thousands of premature deaths – and it will certainly do much to boost shipping’s reputation as an industry with good environmental credentials. And, from the industry’s perspective, the decision provides the much-needed clarity that was being called for almost universally, enabling the shipping and refinery industries to start planning for implementation right away.
With regard to ballast water management, I took the opportunity at MEPC to remind Member States that the entry into force of the Convention in September next year should serve as a strong incentive for Member Governments which have not yet ratified it to do so as soon as possible to ensure universal participation in its implementation.
There was an intense discussion on draft amendments to the Ballast Water ManagementConvention, and I urged all the interested Parties to work together to achieve a pragmatic implementation schedule, for consideration and approval by the next session of the MEPC.But the adoption of revised guidelines for the approval of ballast water management systems by the MEPC will no doubt boost confidence in the robustness and reliability of the treatment technologies.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is not my intention to deliver a technical address to you today – so I will not dwell on the many other matters currently or recently on the agenda at IMO that affect shipowners in general and tanker owners in particular. I have no doubt your technical departments are all very familiar with the issues surrounding topics like inert gas system requirements, goal-based ship construction requirements and the revised IGC Code.
What I would like to do is share with you some insight into an important strategic planning exercise that is currently taking place within IMO.
IMO is developing a new strategic framework for the 2018-2023 period, based on an inclusive process to identify the trends, developments and challenges facing the Organization and the maritime community.
At the moment, we can envisage a number of specific strategic directions for the Organization. Those strategic directions will be discussed in depth at the next meeting of the IMO Council in December, but I would like to mention a few of them now.
The first is improving implementation. IMO has developed more than 50 international treaties and related standards. But the full benefits of this extensive body of international law can only be realized if their provisions are effectively, efficiently and consistently implemented and enforced. More than that, a lack of uniform implementation prevents a level playing field and contributes to market distortions.
In this context, we aim to focus not only on implementation by Member States, but also by the industry, through capacity building and technical cooperation activities.
A second major priority will be dealing with new technologies, which will undoubtedly have a transforming impact on all our lives in the coming years. IMO's regulatory framework has to continuously adapt to new technologies that will significantly affect shipping. New technologies have already brought significant changes in the way ships are designed, constructed and operated, impacting personnel, both on board and ashore. In the future, I expect technology will create a more interconnected and efficient industry, more closely integrated with the whole global supply chain.
As I alluded to a few moments ago, responding to climate change will continue to be a vital strategic direction for the Organization. This is one of the greatest challenges of our era and one which we have been tackling for some time. In its role as the global regulator of international shipping, IMO will continue to develop appropriate and realistic solutions to minimize shipping's contribution to air pollution and its impact on climate change.
IMO will also continue to engage in ocean governance, and by this I mean the processes and mechanisms by which the use of the oceans and their resources are regulated and controlled.
The so-called 'blue economy' is a very sizeable and growing industrial sector. But its success and growth is actually threatening the integrity of the very element that sustains it and supports it – the sea.
To be sustainable, human activities have to be balanced with the oceans' capacity to remain healthy and diverse in the long term. IMO needs to ensure that shipping continues to make its contribution to the global economy without upsetting that delicate balance.
A further strategic goal will be to help international shipping operate more effectively from an administrative perspective. This means addressing issues like arrival and departure formalities, documentation and certification, and generally reducing the administrative burdens that surround ship operation. And, again, we want to make sure that technology is employed in the best possible way to achieve this.
We also want to focus on improving the actual process of developing regulations. And we want to do this so we can make them more effective. So we willbe looking at gathering more data, and then being better and smarter at using it when we make decisions. We willbe looking at getting better feedback from Member States and the industry and improving the way we learn from experience and feed those lessons back into the regulatory process.
Finally, we plan to increase the overall effectiveness of the Organization, to ensure we use our resources as effectively as possible, implement best working practices, and strengthen the linkages and the bonds that already exist between us.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you in the tanker industry clearly recognise, ifwe are to thrive in the future we need to change and adapt in the present. Shipping will have to continue to adjust to the increasingly demanding expectations of its customers, and of society as a whole, with regard to safety and environmental performance. This, incidentally, may also drive beneficial changes in the global fleet, encouraging older vessels to be phased out gradually, promoting new and more efficient ship designs and streamlining vessel operations.
Many of these new expectations are manifested in the regulatory regime developed and adopted by IMO. To some, this in itself may sometimes feel like an unnecessary burden. But we should always remember that IMO represents the collective views and decisions of its 171 Member Governments; and they represent the billions of ordinary people, all over the world, who rely on shipping every day of their lives, whether they realize it or not.
Those people need a viable, profitable shipping industry. Their prosperity, their well-being and, in some cases, their survival, depend on it.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for your attention.
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