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IACS PARTICIPATION AT MEPC 77

Noting the work IACS Members undertake as Recognized Organizations of IMO Member States, verifying compliance of ships with IMO agreed requirements, and with a view to achieve clarity for all parties, IACS has submitted and co-sponsored the following papers:

MEPC 77/4/6 proposes a draft unified interpretation of regulations E-1.1.1 and E-1.1.5 of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Shipsʹ Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 to clarify the timing for mandatory implementation of commissioning testing of individual ballast water management systems in accordance with resolution MEPC.325(75) and taking into account BWM.2/Circ.70/Rev.1.

MEPC 77/4/7 provides information on the status of the experience-building phase (EBP) associated with the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, and proposes to extend the EBP in order to provide sufficient time for the various stages of the EBP to be effective and ensure follow-up decisions relating to a review of the BWM Convention are meaningful and based on sufficient feedback and data

MEPC 77/4/11 proposes a unified interpretation of regulation B-3.10 of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 concerning the deadline for compliance with the D-2 standard for ships constructed before 8 September 2017 but which do not have completed an initial survey associated with the IOPP certificate until after 8 September 2019.

MEPC 77/7/7 proposes a draft unified interpretation of regulation 18.3 of MARPOL Annex VI, related to the use of biofuels. IACS request confirmation that ISO 8217:2010, 2012 or 2017 standards are also acceptable fuel specifications to be used at the parents’ engine NOx emission test and can be used despite the NOx Technical Code only referring to ISO 8217:2005 standard. IACS also seeks the Committees direction for amendments to MARPOL ANNEX VI and the NOx Technical Code to provide a long-term solution to the issues with the application of MARPOL Annex VI and the NOx Technical Code with respect to the use of biofuels.

MEPC 77/7/26 comments on document MEPC 77/7/2 (Japan et al.) containing the draft amendments to the EEXI calculation guidelines and associated guidance to incorporate the in-service measurement method. IACS proposals are contained in paragraphs 6 to 9 of the paper.

MEPC 77/11 proposes a new output to develop amendments to the 2014 Standard specification for shipboard incinerators (resolution MEPC.244(66)) by revising the provisions of its annex 2 on fire protection requirements for incinerators and waste stowage spaces, to remove the discrepancies between resolution MEPC.244(66) and SOLAS chapter II-2.

MEPC 77/11/1 proposes to extend the scope of the existing output 2.15 to address test cycles and related amendments of the NOX Technical Code 2008.

MEPC 77/11/2 proposes a revision of the 2017 Guidelines addressing additional aspects of the NOX Technical Code 2008 with regard to particular requirements related to marine diesel engines fitted with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems (resolution MEPC.291(71) as amended by resolution MEPC.313(74)) (the 2017 SCR Guidelines, as amended) to improve their clarity and enable a uniform implementation.

IACS will also provide advice and comments to the Committee under agenda item 5 (Air Pollution Prevention), agenda item 6 (Energy Efficiency of Ships), and agenda item 14 (Any Other Business).

Any enquiries on the above should be sent to Konstantin Petrov, IACS Accredited Representative to IMO, at arimo@iacs.org.uk