The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meets for its 65th session from 13 to 17 May 2013, at IMO Headquarters in London.   Items on the busy agenda include the implementation of energy-efficiency regulations and the ballast water management and ship-recycling treaties.

After a year’s delay, the United Nations body tasked with developing polar shipping regulations has recommended provisions to address the environmental impacts of Arctic shipping – but they don’t go far enough, says conservation organization WWF.

Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping company, has reached its 2020 target of reducing CO2 emissions by 25% from its benchmark 2007 levels. “We are proud to hit this mark 8 years ahead of schedule. It is confirmation we’re on the right track. And to keep that momentum we’re raising the target to a 40% reduction in CO2 by 2020,” says Morten Engelstoft, Chief Operating Officer, Maersk Line.

Maersk Line, headquartered in Denmark, is the largest shipping company in the world with a global market share of 15%. Maersk Line employs 25,000 people with 325 offices in 125 countries around the world and operates a fleet of more than 600 ships which sail every major trade lane on the globe, and make about 35,000 port calls every year.

INTERTANKO participated in the 18th Session of the IMO Working Group on the Evaluation of Safety and Pollution Hazards (ESPH 18) this week, represented by INTERTANKO's Senior Manager, Vetting & Chemical, Ajay Gour.

It has lain like a great white whale in the crystal clear waters off the Italian island of Giglio for nine months, but a new, crucial phase to remove the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship is about to swing into action.A multinational team of more than 450 specialists, including 60 scuba divers, has almost completed the stabilization of the 950-foot long vessel, anchoring it to the rocky sea shore with four massive cables looped beneath its belly.

In a letter mailed to the Brussels-based Environment attachés of all 27 Member States, environmental groups have denounced a proposal by the European Commission on ship recycling to legalize the export of hazardous end-of-life ships to developing countries.

Discussions at the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 64) this week include the following items of particular interest on ballast water management.As noted previously, INTERTANKO, along with several co-sponsors, submitted a paper on ballast water management for consideration at this meeting of the MEPC. In its paper, INTERTANKO and the co-sponsors outline the four challenges affecting ratification and effective implementation of the BWM Convention as:

The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meets for its 64th session from 1 to 5 October 2012, at IMO Headquarters in London.As well as discussing matters relating to the implementation of energy-efficiency, ballast water management and ship-recycling regulations, the MEPC will also consider formally designating the Saba Bank, in the North-eastern Caribbean area of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA).

Prominent environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt, from the Sustainable Shipping initiative, told last week’s International Chamber  of Shipping conference  that the various targets for CO2 reduction that shipping was currently struggling towards would eventually prove “irrelevant”. He said that the industry would have to be 95% de-carbonised by 2050 as part of global efforts to prevent global warming reaching dangerous levels.