In support of the IMO report, ICS submitted a proposal on how the system can be implemented, which was examined by the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) last month.
Simon Bennett, director of external relations, ICS, said: “ICS believes that the question of whether IMO should eventually develop a mandatory system of energy indexing for existing ships – to which ICS is currently opposed – should be left open until after a mandatory CO2 emissions reporting system has been established, trialled, and the results evaluated.”
The association says it believes the system could work provided it would be simple to administer, is primarily based on fuel consumption and that it will not be used in the development of a “full0-blown” market based measure.
ICS says the successful development of a global system will require the support of all IMO Member States, including nations like China.
“In order to make progress and discourage regional regulation, we think that the MEPC should initially focus on how information about emissions should be collected before launching into detailed discussions about efficiency indexing of ships, on which there is little global consensus. If they so wish, IMO Member States can always return to the question of ship indexing, once a CO2 monitoring system has been established,” Mr Bennett added.