Environment Division News

Arsenio Dominguez, who took up office as the 10th elected Secretary-General of the IMO on January 1, has named his Senior Management Committee members:  Director of Administrative Division: Azara PrempehDirector of Maritime Safety Division: Hiroyuki YamadaDirector of Legal Affairs and External Relations Division: Dorota Lost-SieminskaDirector of Marine Environment Division: Heike DeggimDirector of Technical Cooperation Division: Jose MatheickalDirector of Conference Division: Xiaojie ZhangChief of Staff: Damien Chevallier.

The IMO and the Republic of Korea have signed a suite of agreements to formally establish and boost the IMO-Republic of Korea Sustainable Maritime Transport Cooperation (SMART-C) program.The goal of the KRW 25.5 billion (approximately $20 million) SMART-C program is to promote sustainable maritime transport systems and a sustainable marine environment by building knowledge and developing technical capacity in developing countries via long-term thematic projects.This Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding will ensure long-term programming of several technical cooperation projects.

The International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) announced the appointment of Dr. Edmund Hughes as its International Maritime Organization (IMO) Representative, effective from September 1, 2023. Dr. Hughes will succeed Unni Einemo.A prominent figure in the maritime community, many will recognize Edmund for his pivotal role as the Head of Air Pollution and Energy Efficiency in the Marine Environment Division at the IMO. His tenure there played a significant part in developing MARPOL Annex VI…

The International Maritime Organization's Council (IMO) has elected Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco from Panama as its secretary-general, the UN shipping agency said on Tuesday.Dominguez beat six other contenders from China, Turkey, Kenya, Finland, Dominica and Bangladesh in a vote and will take office on January 1, 2024, for a four-year term, subject to the approval of the IMO Assembly.Dominguez will take the helm at a crucial time as the shipping industry grapples with challenges including pressures to speed up decarbonization.A trained naval architect…

International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN body, announced that a major five-year project to help protect marine biodiversity has been kick-started at a global workshop at IMO Headquarters in London, United Kingdom (18-20 March).The IMO-executed GloFouling Partnerships project will address bioinvasions by organisms which can build up on ships’ hulls and other marine structures. The project is a collaboration between the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and IMO.Representatives from 12 lead partnering countries, four regional organizations, IOC-UNESCO, the World Ocean Council and…

The GloFouling Partnerships project - a collaboration between the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) -  has been launched.The new international effort to combat the negative environmental impacts of the transfer of aquatic species through ships  will address the build-up of aquatic organisms on a ship’s underwater hull and on other marine mobile infrastructure.The introduction of invasive aquatic organisms into new marine environments not only affects biodiversity and ecosystem health, but also has measurable impacts on a number of economic sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture and ocean energy.

At gmec, the global maritime environmental congress (gmec) during SMM in Hamburg, high-profile business and science experts discussed how the global shipping industry can achieve the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) environmental goals while continuing to provide its services at competitive prices.“We are at the beginning of a new chapter in the history of shipping,” said Tian-Bing Huang, Deputy Director - Marine Environment Division at the IMO, in his opening keynote.There is no question that the shipping sector is facing huge challenges…

For ports to cut emissions to ensure cleaner air and contribute to the battle against climate change, they first need to quantify emissions and then identify measures to reduce port-related emissions in a cost-effective way. The on-going strategic partnership between the International Maritime Organization (IMO) -run GloMEEP project on energy-efficiency and the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) is helping selected countries to develop port emission inventories and subsequently draw up a port emission reduction strategy. To-date, four countries have benefited from a new IMO training package, the latest being the Philippines – with a workshop in Manila  (15-17 May).

Africa has launched its maritime technology cooperation centre as part of an ambitious  International Maritime Organization (IMO)-EU project to establish a global network of centres to further global efforts in addressing climate change. The centres will act as regional focal points for a wide range of activities including improving compliance with existing and future international energy-efficiency regulations; promoting uptake of low-carbon technologies and operations in maritime transport, and establishing voluntary pilot data-collection and reporting systems to feed back into the global regulatory process. In doing so, they will play their part in supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The second phase of an International Maritime Organization (IMO)-implemented project to enhance safe and environmentally sound ship recycling in Bangladesh is set to begin in January, following a US$1.1 million funding agreement with Norway. The two-year project will build on the first phase of the Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh (SENSREC) project, which resulted in economic and environmental studies on ship recycling in Bangladesh, the development of training materials and capacity building plans and a preliminary design for infrastructure including facilities for treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes generated from recycling operations.

"No stakeholder, alone, can deal with the complexities the planet faces in addressing the challenge of climate change", said International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s Director of the Marine Environment Division, Stefan Micallef. He was opening the joint Singapore-IMO International Conference on Maritime Technology Transfer and Capacity-Building also known as Future-Ready Shipping Conference 2017, held in Singapore (25-26 September). The Conference looked at future collaborations that can drive discussions towards identifying opportunities that can have an impact on the shipping industry as it moves towards decarbonization. The event also included sessions covering the latest trends in maritime and port energy efficient technologies…

Close to 240 maritime leaders and professionals will gather in Singapore to identify priority areas for international action and exchange best practices in maritime technology transfer and capacity building at the Future-Ready Shipping 2017 Conference. Jointly organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the conference will take place from 25th to 26th September 2017 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Future-Ready Shipping 2017 is the second edition in the conference series which pioneered a global dialogue on maritime technology cooperation. The first, also held in Singapore in 2015…

Global Environment Facility (GEF) approves new project concept to address major aquatic invasive species vector. A new global project to help protect marine ecosystems from the negative effects of invasive aquatic species has been given the go-ahead for preparation. The GloFouling Partnerships project – a collaboration between the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) – will address the transfer of aquatic species through biofouling, in other words, the build-up of aquatic organisms on a ship’s underwater hull and structures. The project will focus on the implementation of the IMO Guidelines for the control and management of ships’ biofouling…

The International Maritime Prize for 2016 will be awarded to former Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Koji Sekimizu for his contribution to the work of IMO over many years. The Council unanimously decided to award the Prize to Sekimizu, IMO Secretary-General Emeritus, in recognition of his invaluable contribution to the work and objectives of the organization and the international maritime community as a whole. Sekimizu held a long and distinguished career with the organization, culminating in his four-year stewardship as Secretary-General from 2012 to 2016.

"International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations will be a driver and catalyst for a generation of new, more efficient ships" said Stefan Micallef, Director of the Marine Environment Division at IMO, as he concluded his remarks at the 2017Propulsion and Emissions conference, Hamburg, Germany (10-11 May). The ‘Future proofing your fleet’ event discussed challenging issues of complying with environmental regulations and the associated costs. In his keynote address, Micallef also touched upon key IMO issues such as CO2 emissions reduction policies, noting the successful introduction of the EEDI, which is forecast to cut CO2 emissions by 1.3 gigatonnes, or 3.6% of total global emissions, by 2050.

A decade-long project to promote implementation of an international treaty stemming the transfer of potentially invasive species in ships’ ballast water has reached a successful conclusion at a meeting of stakeholders from Governments, industry and UN bodies. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has been executing the GloBallast Partnerships Program in collaboration with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project was launched in 2007 after an initial 4-year phase and has been assisting developing countries to reduce the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens in ships’ ballast water and implement the IMO Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention.

A new centre tasked with promoting technologies and operations to help navigate shipping into a low-carbon future has been launched at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (8 March). The centre will cater to the needs of the Caribbean region under the Global Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre Network (GMN) – a project funded by the European Union (EU) and run by  International Maritime Organization (IMO). The GMN initiative unites carefully selected technology centres into a global network focused on supporting developing countries in activities including development of national energy-efficiency policies for their maritime sectors.

With an annual gross tonnage capacity of more than 8.8 million, Bangladesh’s ship recycling industry is one of the world’s largest, second only to neighboring India in terms of volume. But for these countries ship recycling practices have long been a matter of concern, particularly in terms of safety and environmental sustainability. Now on the heels of completing its first phase of a project aiming to improve standards within the nation’s ship recycling industry, the Government…

International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s work to promote safe and environmentally sound ship recycling made further progress this week (6-8 November) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where a roundtable meeting of donors discussed next steps in IMO’s SENSREC project. At the meeting, the Government of Bangladesh announced plans to take on phase II of the project, which will establish a Treatment Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) in the Chittagong region. The facility will help to manage hazardous materials derived from ship recycling and other industries in the region. Participants also visited the ship recycling yards in Chittagong and had a practical overview of the country’s ship recycling industry.

A meeting to update South Asia’s regional plan for oil and chemical pollution preparedness and response is underway in Male, Maldives (22-25 August), informs  International Maritime Organization (IMO). Senior officials from Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are sharing their national experiences and consolidating updates to the plan with a view to finalizing it. The event includes a regional training workshop on hazardous and noxious substance (HNS) spills preparedness and response. Moving forward, the participants will also identify future training needs and develop a three-year training programme to enhance the region’s spill preparedness and response capacity.

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) have appointed former Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Koji Sekimizu, as a RSIS-MPA Distinguished Visiting Fellow for a period of two years commencing on 1 May 2016. The fellowship was established by RSIS and MPA to engage eminent maritime personalities with specialised knowledge, expertise and international experience. Koji Sekimizu, a naval architect by training, began his career as a ship inspector with Japan’s Ministry of Transport and joined the IMO as Technical Officer in the Sub-Division for Technology, Maritime Safety Division in 1989.

The United Kingdom has become the first State to formally accept the 2013 marine geoengineering amendments to the 1996 “London Protocol”, the treaty covering dumping of wastes at sea. The amendments support the precautionary approach by providing for specific marine geoengineering activities to be permitted only when the activity is assessed as constituting legitimate scientific research. Currently, only ocean fertilization for research purposes may be permitted. Meanwhile, the marine scientific expert group GESAMP is currently undertaking a comprehensive study on marine geoengineering to better understand the potential impacts of proposed marine geoengineering techniques on the marine environment – including social and economic consequences.

The United Kingdom has become the first state to formally accept the 2013 marine geoengineering amendments to the 1996 “London Protocol”, the treaty covering dumping of wastes at sea. The amendments support the precautionary approach by providing for specific marine geoengineering activities to be permitted only when the activity is assessed as constituting legitimate scientific research. Currently, only ocean fertilization for research purposes may be permitted. Meanwhile, the…