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The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) held its Annual General Meeting in Port Douglas, Queensland, from 24 to 25 May, hosted by the Australian Shipowners' Association. The meeting was held back-to-back with the AGM of the Asian Shipowners' Forum (ASF) which comprises the national shipowners' associations of Asia.

At the ICS AGM, national shipowners' associations from Europe, Asia and the Americas, representing all sectors and trades and 80% of the world merchant fleet, considered pressing international issues of concern to global ship operators.

Matters discussed included the issue of emissions, where ICS members reviewed the status of discussions at IMO, UNFCCC and within the European Union with respect to further reducing shipping's CO2 emissions.

The newly elected ICS Chairman, Mr Masamichi Morooka, remarked: "We agreed our priority is to ensure that the ground-breaking IMO agreement made last year, on technical and operational measures for both new and existing ships, is implemented successfully once the rules come into force globally in 2013. We are determined to achieve our goal of improving fuel efficiency across the industry by 20% by 2020."

Market Based Measures (MBMs) remain very controversial, but the ICS agreed to continue to engage in the debate at IMO and elsewhere on MBMs. The ICS AGM especially welcomed the proposal by the IMO Secretary-General that IMO should commence a full impact assessment of the various mechanisms that have been proposed by governments, at the MEPC meeting in October.

"If an MBM is adopted for shipping by governments, this must be applied internationally in order to maintain the level playing field and be developed at IMO." said Mr Morooka.

"ICS members agreed that the political and practical complexity of agreeing an MBM should not be underestimated, as the European Union is now finding with respect to aviation." added Mr Morooka. "Regardless of whether or not a maritime MBM is adopted, ships will still reduce their emissions as a result of the global agreement on technical and operational measures already delivered by our regulator, the IMO."