Outcome of the 81st session of IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) on GHG discussions

Members will recall that at MEPC 80 in July 2023, the IMO adopted a revised Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from ships which provided a framework of emission reduction targets – see IMO’s GHG Strategy.

To deliver these reduction targets, a key element of IMO’s 2023 GHG Strategy is the development of a so-called “basket of measures” in the mid-term, i.e. between 2023 – 2030, comprising technical and economic elements, as set out below:

1. A Technical element: A goal-based marine fuel standard (GFS) regulating the phased reduction of marine fuel’s GHG intensity towards the 2050 goal; and
2. An Economic element: Based on a maritime GHG emissions carbon pricing mechanism.

To progress the development of legislation necessary to implement the technical and economic elements set out above, two meetings of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) have been scheduled for 2024.

The first of these meetings (MEPC 81) took place just before Easter, with the 16^th session of its dedicated GHG Working Group meeting the previous week to commence in-depth discussions on:

• the development of candidate mid-term measure(s) – 1) and 2) above
• further development of the Life Cycle GHG Assessment (LCA) framework, for marine fuels, and
• proposals related to onboard CO₂ capture.

Further information on the LCA Framework and onboard CO₂ capture is set out in this Information Note.