Which technologies will best support shipping’s move to a low carbon future? How can first movers be incentivized to take-up emission reduction technologies? How can the effective implementation of “Just-in-Time” operation help ships optimize speed, avoid idle times outside ports and cut emissions? How can financial barriers related to implementation of new technological measures be overcome? These and other questions were on the agenda when leading shipowners and operators, classification societies, engine and technology builders and suppliers, big data providers, oil companies and ports in the IMO-supported Global Industry Alliance to Support Low Carbon Shipping (GIA) met for the third meeting of the GIA Taskforce and an Ideas Generation Workshop (29-30 May), in Shoreham-by-Sea, United Kingdom.
The GIA Taskforce meeting progressed work on several on-going projects, including on the validation of performance of Energy Efficiency Technologies (EETs), the assessment of barriers to the uptake of Just-in-Time Operation of ships and resulting emission and fuel saving opportunities from its effective implementation, as well as work on the current status and application of alternative fuels in the maritime sector and barriers to their uptake. The GIA is also developing an E-Learning course on the Energy Efficient Operation of Ships which is expected to be completed and launched later this year.
The GIA, for the first time, held an Ideas Generation Workshop, to brainstorm further ideas and concrete actions the GIA could take to further support the shipping sector in its efforts to reduce emissions. This included discussions on disruptive technologies that can deliver the step-change required for shipping to decarbonize, as well as enabling technologies that have the potential to support shipping transition to zero emissions. The GIA also considered the short-term candidate measures contained in the Initial IMO Strategy on the reduction of GHG emissions from ships, and brainstormed concrete ideas on how first movers could be incentivized to develop and take up new technologies.
In a video message to the GIA, Mr Peter Thomson, the United Nations Special Envoy for Oceans, highlighted the importance of partnerships like the GIA in contributing to the solutions required to decarbonize the maritime transport sector, describing these types of alliances as “the right medicine, with the ability to provide great support to IMO in the implementation of the recently adopted Initial GHG Strategy”.
The GIA Taskforce meeting and workshop were hosted by one of the GIA founding members, Ricardo UK Ltd, and attended by representatives of 14 GIA members, UNDP’s Andrew Hudson, and IMO’s Jose Matheickal, Astrid Dispert and Minglee Hoe.
The GIA is an innovative public-private partnership initiative of the IMO, under the framework of the GEF-UNDP-IMO Global Maritime Energy Efficiency Partnerships (GloMEEP) Project, that aims to bring together maritime industry leaders to support an energy efficient and low carbon maritime transport system. The Taskforce re-elected Mr Claes Berglund (Stena AB) as Chair for the GIA’s second membership year.
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