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A number of top level industry representatives participated in a meeting last week convened by International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos.

Participants in the meeting, held at the IMO headquarters in London, included: Mr. S. Polemis, Chairman, ICS and President, ISF, and Mr. S. Bennett, Secretary, ICS; Mr. R. Lorenz-Meyer, President, BIMCO and Mr. T. Skaanild, Secretary-General, BIMCO; Mr. G. Westgarth, Chairman, INTERTANKO and Mr. P. Swift, Managing Director, INTERTANKO; Mr. N. Pappadakis, Chairman, INTERCARGO and Mr. R. Lomas, Secretary-General, INTERCARGO; Mr. D. Cotterell, Director, Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF); Mr. J. Whitlow, Secretary, Seafarers' Section, International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF); and the Revd. T. Heffer, Secretary-General, The Mission to Seafarers. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Marianito Roque, until recently Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment in the Philippines.

Climate change issues

Participants noted the progress being made by IMO towards putting in place of a comprehensive regulatory regime aimed at limiting or reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships, through the work of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in developing and enacting the standards, measures and mechanisms required to that effect.

Industry body representatives confirmed they would continue supporting IMO in its work on climate change through various actions, including those aiming at promoting the organization’s work on technical, operational and market-based measures; and also at the next MEPC meeting, MEPC 61 (27 September to 1 October), with a view to achieving proportionate, balanced and workable measures.

They also pledged to support the outcome of MEPC 61, when presented to the meeting of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (COP 16), which is scheduled to meet in Cancún, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010. Other topics discussed at the meeting were "2010: Year of the Seafarer" and “Piracy: orchestrating the response".