EU Backs LNG Bunkers, IMO Strategy

EU ministers at a transport, telecommunications and energy council meeting June 8 adopted a declaration to support an IMO strategy to reduce GHGs and expand LNG as a bunker fuel.

The ministers, meeting in Brussels, endorsed the 'Valletta Declaration' which had been agreed March 29 at an informal ministerial council in Malta.

Their June 8 declaration supports the European Commission (EC)'s initiatives in promoting the use of alternative energies and fuels for shipping, notably harmonised standards for LNG bunkering connectors and procedures for LNG bunkering in European ports, to make it easier for shipowners to use LNG as a fuel in the run-up to the IMO's introduction of a 0.5% cap on sulphur emissions from marine fuels starting 1 January 2020.

The declaration also invites EU states to work with the EC both towards the adoption in 2018 of "an ambitious initial IMO strategy" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the maritime sector, thereby taking into account the well below 2°C objective of the Paris Agreement, as well as "reaching out to third countries and industry" to back the strategy's goals of supporting capacity building (such as expanding LNG bunkering facilities) and initiatives demonstrating the benefits of decarbonisation in the shipping sector.

This declaration signals the EU's willingness to intensify its co-operation with China and others in pushing for the Paris accord's implementation, despite the declaration last week by the US president Donald Trump that he will withdraw the US from the agreement.

The IMO strategy to reduce GHGs is expected to be discussed at the IMO 71st Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) session July 3-7. However the human health benefits of reducing sulphur in marine fuels were the largest factor why the IMO last autumn adopted the 0.5% cap. 

Mark Smedley