Jose Matheickal News

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 second phase of an International Maritime Organization (IMO) -implemented project to enhance safe and environmentally sound ship recycling in Bangladesh has been launched with the first Project Executive Committee meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2 July). The SENSREC Project Phase II - Capacity Building, funded under a US$1.1 million agreement with Norway, will focus on legal and institutional analysis of ship recycling in the country and will develop a roadmap for the Government of Bangladesh to accede to the 2009 Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HongKong Convention). The two-year project will also provide training for workers in ship recycling yards, supervisors and government officials.

Seven ASEAN countries have formally launched an ambitious initiative aimed at improving the environmental health of the seas in the region, through the implementation of key International Maritime Organization (IMO) marine environment protection treaties. Senior decisions makers of maritime administrations of the beneficiary ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) met for their first high-level regional meeting in Bali, Indonesia (25-27 June), to kick-start the “Marine Environment Protection for Southeast Asia Seas (MEPSEAS) Project”. IMO is implementing the project, with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

The Latin America Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre, part of a global network established under an ambitious International Maritime Organization (IMO)-European Union (EU)  project to further efforts to combat climate change, has been launched in Panama (13 March). The centre, hosted by the Universidad Marítima Internacional de Panamá (UMIP), is one of five such centres established under the GMN project, which is funded by the EU and run by IMO. The centres, in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific regions, act as regional focal points for a wide range of activities. These include, improving compliance with existing and future international energy-efficiency regulations…

The Global MTTC Network (GMN) maritime technology project, run by International Maritime Organization (IMO) and funded by the European Union, was presented during a side-event (10 November) at the UN climate change conference in Bonn, Germany (COP 23). The project established a network of five regional Maritime Technology Cooperation Centres (MTCCs). Representatives of the European Union, IMO, MTCC-Caribbean and MTCC-Pacific participated at the event. MTCCs updated the audience on their pilot projects, including data collection on fuel oil consumption on ships. From 2019, ships over 5,000 gross tonnage worldwide – which account for 85% of CO2 emissions from international shipping - will be required to collect consumption data for each type of fuel oil they use…

International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) to deliver technical cooperation activities was in the spotlight in Oslo this week (May 30-31). In addition to the annual IMO-Norad projects review meeting, IMO presented the Organization and its technical cooperation programme to senior officials from Norwegian ministries and NGOs (Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Ministry of Climate and Environment, and WWF Norway), highlighting in particular the IMO-Norad East Asia Project, which helped build capacity to implement IMO environment-protection conventions in six participating countries – with a view to identifying further cooperation opportunities.

​A new regional centre, which will provide leadership in promoting ship energy-efficiency technologies and operations, and the reduction of harmful emissions from ships, has been launched at Shanghai Maritime University, China (15 May). The centre will cater to the needs of the Asia region under the Global Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre (MTCC) 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.

Latest developments on the entry into force of the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention took centre stage at the 8th International Conference on Ballast Water Management (24-25 April) in Singapore. International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Emeritus, Koji Sekimizu, and Chief Technical Advisor of the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Partnerships Programme, Jose Matheickal, delivered keynote addresses at the event. Among other key issues, participants discussed the revised guidelines for the approval of Ballast Water Management Systems (G8), challenges facing Port State Control with regards to Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement (CME) and the timeline for installation of BWM systems.

International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s response to the needs of developing countries for building capacity and facilitating technology transfer to promote low-carbon shipping was highlighted at the Environmental Sustainable Shipping Industry Conference (ESSIC), held in Panama City, Panama (14 March). The international conference was held in parallel with the Panama Maritime XIII World Conference and Exhibition. IMO’s Jose Matheickal talked through the Global Maritime Energy Efficiency Partnerships Project (GloMEEP) funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), which focus on legal, policy and institutional reforms in developing countries to implement MARPOL annex VI requirements.

Participating States in a highly successful International Maritime Organization (IMO)-Norad environmental project have wrapped up the project in a final meeting, during which they pledged to continue to forge ahead with the implementation of key IMO marine environmental conventions. During the meeting in Bali, Indonesia (9-11 November), the six east Asian beneficiary countries highlighted the major goals reached during the project, including the development of national legislation for the ratification of key treaties. The countries expressed an interest in developing a follow-up project concept which would cover the entire ASEAN region and focus on the effective implementation of the IMO conventions that the countries have recently acceded to.

Three new guides that will support States to effectively implement IMO-adopted mandatory energy-efficiency measures for shipping have been rolled out during a training under the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-International Maritime Organization (IMO) GloMEEP Project, paving the way for further work in climate change mitigation by the maritime sector. The GloMEEP training was held from 12 to 14 September in Batumi, Georgia, which is one of the Lead Pilot Countries of the Project. The GloMEEP Project is part of IMO’s continued work to support developing countries to prevent air pollution and address greenhouse gas emissions from ships.

International Maritime Organization (IMO) is continuing its work to support developing countries to prevent air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from ships with a global training exercise held in Batumi, Georgia (12-14 September). Participants are being trained to use three new draft guides, specifically developed under IMO’s GloMEEP project in collaboration with IMArEST, which cover i) rapid assessment for determining the country maritime energy efficiency and emissions status, ii) maritime energy efficiency strategy development, and iii) incorporation of MARPOL Annex VI into national law. Thirty-seven participants from all 10 GloMEEP lead pilot countries* are taking part in the exercise, which will lay the foundation for further work in the countries going forward.

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.

A global Train-the-Trainer workshop on energy efficiency has been delivered in China (23-27 May), preparing the personnel needed to cascade knowledge on energy efficiency for ships and related efforts for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping. The five-day intensive course was organized by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), within the framework of the Global Maritime Energy Efficiency Partnerships (GloMEEP) Project. The workshop was co-hosted by the China Maritime Safety Administration (China MSA) and Dalian Maritime University (DMU). The GloMEEP Project  aims to support increased uptake and implementation of energy-efficiency measures for shipping. China is one of the ten Lead Pilot Countries implementing the GloMEEP Project.

A team from International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s Marine Environment Division has won the best Portfolio Solution Award in the 8th International Waters Conference (IWC8) organized by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Negombo, Sri Lanka (9-13 May). The award was given for the project with the best strategy for scaling-up investments aimed at addressing global environmental issues facing international waters, including the oceans. International waters is one of the five thematic portfolios of GEF funding, with around 90 related projects being featured at IWC8 and some 300 currently underway worldwide. IMO's team presented the "Glo-X" partnerships model, embracing two separate projects - GloBallast and GloMEEP.

IMO & IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues, jointly launch a new Global Initiative (GI). The GI programme, aimed at improving the oil spill preparedness and response capabilities in south east Asia was launched at a recent regional workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. IMO and IPIECA have, for a number of years, been working with their international and regional partners to establish this new regional programme, which demonstrates a major commitment from both Government and industry to improve oil spill preparedness and response in the region.