IMO to hold virtual environmental talks

While the struggle to reschedule meetings postponed due to the coronavirus continues, the IMO has at least agreed to informal virtual meetings on the decarbonisation agenda

THE International Maritime Organization plans to hold informal negotiations on the reductions of emissions from the existing fleet.

The regulator announced that it will hold virtual meetings of “preliminary” discussions from July 6 to July 10 for two hours each day.

The talks follow the postponement of all IMO meetings due to the coronavirus outbreak, including two that had been expected to lead to an agreement on at least one short-term measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. No new date for the resumption of the official meetings has been set.

The informal environmental discussions will focus solely on existing proposals to improve the operational efficiency of existing ships, the priority for many going into the postponed negotiations, the IMO said.

This agenda item includes the most significant proposals of the postponed meetings.

Some of these are Japan’s proposal for specific energy efficiency targets on existing ships, the Danish-led suggestion for individual carbon intensity targets on vessels and the call by environmental NGOs for vessels to slash their carbon intensity by at least 80% by 2030 compared with 2008.

July’s talks will not lead to definitive agreements.

“Given the informal and preliminary nature of the virtual meeting, it is noted that participants are not requested to take formal positions on the proposals submitted to ISWG-GHG 7, and that the virtual meeting is not expected to take any decisions,” the IMO said.

The organisation’s council, the 40-member state body that governs the organisation, has been having an online correspondence since last month on how they could reschedule all the postponed meetings. General-sceretary Kitack Lim said in April that the IMO did not have the capability to hold virtual meetings.

Delegates from member states had also at the time privately expressed concerns about the limitations of this process, given the sheer number of delegations, the time differences and the need for translators.

The IMO now says that it has been preparing to hold virtual meetings.

“In this regard, this informal meeting will also have an experimental purpose to facilitate future virtual meetings at IMO,” it said.