The volume of submissions to the International Maritime Organization ahead of the 82nd gathering of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), scheduled to start on September 30, could break records. One paper submitted generating discussion comes from the American NGO, the Environmental Defense Fund, which calls for the IMO’s Data Collection System (IMO DCS) and the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) ratings to be opened up to the public. Adopted at MEPC 70, the IMO DCS was part of a three-step process to collect data, analyse it and use the data to inform decision-making for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction measures. At present, however, data from the IMO DCS is only available in aggregate and anonymised forms, subject to strictly limited exceptions. “The IMO DCS is now in its sixth reporting year, yet stakeholders remain unable to leverage its data in their own decision-making, and progress towards GHG reductions has been curtailed as a result,” the proposal states. In EDF’s view, the current system of accessibility suffers from fragmentation and greater accessibility to this verified IMO DCS data could unlock useful insights about the world fleet, enabling more sustainable commercial decisions, and supporting evidence-based discussions at the IMO. There is today – to EDF’s knowledge – no freely accessible source providing the verified ship CII ratings, making it very hard for administrations and port authorities to provide incentives to top rated green vessels. This lack of access presents a “serious bottleneck” to the action stakeholders can take to incentivise A or B CII classed ships, the EDF argues. Splash will be bringing readers key takeaways from MEPC 82, which is scheduled to run from September 30 to October 4 with carbon levy discussions set to be one of the big headlines from the global gathering. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); });