Koji Sekimizu, the Secretary-General, in his opening address to the IMO's Maritime Environment Protection Committee (MEPC66) repeated calls for Member States to speed up the ratification and implementation of the Ballast Water and Hong Kong Conventions, UK Chamber of Shipping said in its press release.
The committee, held last week and chaired by Mr. Arsenio Dominguez of Panama, included additional updates on a range of environmental issues. On NOX Tier III Limits, it was agreed to retain the date of the 1 January 2016 only for the existing NOX emission control areas. For future emission control areas the regulation will apply to ships constructed on or after the date of adoption of such an emission control area, or a later date as may be specified in the amendment designating the NOX Tier III emission control area, whichever is later.
Some progress was also made on the development of a data collection system for fuel consumption of ships, including identification of the core elements, but it will almost certainly not be enough to deter the EU from continuing to introduce a European Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) scheme.