UN maritime agency to intensify work on greenhouse gas emissions

The head of the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) today called for accelerating the agency's work on greenhouse gas emissions from ships.

Speaking to the IMO Council, Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said he would present a plan to accelerate work to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) when it meets in March of next year.

Mr. Mitropoulos spoke of the increasing importance and urgency given by the international community to the control of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and “of the globally expressed wish to act, and act now,” the agency said in a news release.

He said that IMO and the international maritime community needed to demonstrate their determination to be in the front line of the global campaign to tackle this threat to the global climate without delay.

The acceleration involves measures to update of the 2000 IMO Study on emissions from ships, including development of a CO2 Emission Indexing Scheme, a CO2 emission baseline and technical, operational and market-based methods to achieve a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, all of which are currently planned to be finalized by July 2009.

Secretary-General Mitropoulos's call for an acceleration of the work plan has been endorsed by the MEPC Chairman, Mr. Andreas Chrysostomou of Cyprus.

The IMO is the UN's specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.