IMO piracy and emission focus
Efthimios E.Mitropoulos addressed the 27th IMO assembly this week Photo: imo.un/Flickr
IMO secretary general, Efthimios E.Mitropoulos told delegates at the 27th IMO assembly this week that piracy and ships emissions have been central themes of the organisation’s work this year.
In his opening address to the assembly, Mr Mitropoulos, said that the escalation of piracy had prompted IMO to make combating it an important issue this year.
An action plan devised in collaboration with the shipping industry and seafarer organisations is being implemented. Although the number of successful pirate attacks has dropped to less than 20% this year, as of last week 15 ships were still being held in Somalia – an indication that the situation is still serious.
Mr Mitropoulos also spoke about efforts to establish a regulatory regime to control and reduce ship emissions and emphasised the need for governments, the shipping industry and environmental groups to work together. He said this had been: “A difficult task from both a conceptual and a technical perspective”.
Nonetheless, MARPOL Annex VI has still established the first ever mandatory global greenhouse gases reduction regime for an international industry sector this year.
Looking ahead, the IMO Council has chosen ‘IMO: One hundred years after the Titantic’ as the World Maritime Day theme for 2012 – a good opportunity to go back to IMO’s roots and focus on safety at sea.
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