16 March 2009: The second intersessional meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Working Group on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Ships took place at IMO headquarters in London, UK, from 9-13 March 2009. The meeting brought together over 200 experts and focused on technical and operational measures to reduce GHG emissions from ships. A report from the meeting will be presented to the 59th session of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 59), to be held in July 2009.

Participants considered proposals from governments and observer organizations on ways to increase fuel efficiency for ships and focused on refining the Energy Efficiency Design Index for new ships, which aims to stimulate innovation and technical development of all the elements that influence the energy efficiency of a ship, thus making it possible to design and build energy efficient ships of the future. The group also considered how to improve the Energy Efficiency Operational Index, which enables operators to measure the fuel efficiency of an existing ship and, therefore, to gage the effectiveness of any measures adopted to reduce energy consumption. Participants discussed a draft Ship Energy Management Plan, which was developed by a coalition of industry organizations, and agreed to forward it to MEPC 59 for further consideration. The outcome of MEPC 59 will be presented to the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. [IMO Press Release]