Fuel consumption data collected from industry is needed to determine the way forward for assessing the offshore vessel industry’s carbon intensity, writes IMCA legal & regulatory affairs head, Margaret Fitzgerald
IMCA is firmly committed to decarbonisation of the marine contracting industry. This is why we are calling on our members to provide fuel consumption data for each of their vessels of 5,000 gross tonnes and above. This data will be used to calculate the two proxies proposed by IMCA in its submission to IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee MEPC 74 (MEPC 74/6).
The calculations will determine whether the two proposed proxies can be used to assess the carbon intensity (CI) of the offshore and marine contracting sector.
MEPC (MEPC 76/5/3) granted permission to IMCA in June to collect and submit data on emissions on behalf of our sector for its review.
To support members, IMCA produced a webinar, Assessing the carbon intensity of the offshore and marine contracting sector, exploring the reasons behind this requirement, while addressing how to effectively measure emissions from marine contracting, how the industry can be more energy efficient on a ‘total project’ basis, how to maintain a sensible proxy that addresses the diverse offshore vessel fleet, and how to factor in safety.
Divided into four parts, the webinar looked at IMCA’s fuel consumption data collection initiative, carbon intensity indicator (CII) and rating mechanisms, emissions and reporting, and a Q&A session with members of IMCA’s Marine Policy and Regulatory Affairs (MPRA) committee.
IMO’s initial greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction strategy envisages CO2 emissions on ‘transport work’ as an average declining across international shipping by at least 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050 compared to 2008 levels.
“IMCA has proposed two possible proxies which could be used by IMO as a CII for our sector”
This is highly laudable, but while the concept of ‘transport work’ is appropriate for vessels that carry passengers and/or cargo between ports of departure and destinations for commercial purposes, it is not suitable for offshore and marine contracting vessels. There are more than 20 offshore support vessel types, many not moving vast distances (or sometimes not at all) and some of which are particularly fuel intensive for safety reasons.
As an alternative to ‘transport work’, IMCA proposed two possible proxies (A and B) to be used by IMO as a CII for our sector. In March 2021, IMO’s Intersessional Working Group on GHGs considered IMCA’s proposal and decided that data in support of each of the proxies was needed before IMO could decide whether proxies A, B or an alternative, such as total carbon emissions, would be most appropriate.
During the webinar, Dr Shuang Zhang, associate professor Shipping Development Research Institute of Dalian Maritime University, focussed on carbon intensity and suggested possible steps to include the offshore and marine contracting sector to the CII rating mechanism.
That particular ‘nettle’ was firmly grasped by DNV principal consultant Tore Longva, who put forward alternative concepts for offshore and marine contracting vessels. These were identifying and using a different work proxy, such as those proposed by IMCA to IMO in document MEPC 74/6; capturing emissions in accordance with the operational mode of the vessel, each having its own specific proxy; and finally (and his favoured option) implementing a fuel GHG standard, whereby emissions are measured relative to energy provided by the fuel, as proposed in documents MEPC 77/7/16, ISWG-GHG 10/5/3.
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