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The European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) says it believes "continuous progress was made" last week at the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) intersessional meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC).

In the meeting, the draft initial IMO plan was discussed in order to establish a clear vision and guiding principles on the levels of ambition for a comprehensive CO2 reduction strategy in line with the Paris COP21 Agreement on climate change. A list of candidate short-, mid- and long-term measures with possible timelines and their impact on IMO states were addressed.

"In particular, we are pleased that the European Commission and the EU member states were aligned and made a great effort in trying to bridge the different views and offered solutions among the global IMO members during their intersessional meeting," remarked Martin Dorsman, ECSA's Secretary General.

"The European Shipowners are confident that IMO will be able to deliver an ambitious strategy for adoption by IMO Member States at the next MEPC meeting in April 2018," the ECSA added.

In a submission to last week's meeting made by International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other shipping associations, it was reiterated that IMO should adopt a number of CO2 reduction objectives on behalf of the international shipping sector. Specifically, it was proposed that the sector's total CO2 emissions should not increase above 2008 levels, thus establishing 2008 as the year of peak emissions from shipping, and that IMO should agree upon reduction percentages per ton-km as well as by which amount the total emissions from the sector might be reduced by 2050.

"There is certainly a strong will from the European shipowners to decarbonize the industry," the ECSA said.