News
Publish date: May 2, 2012
Written by: Kristina Östman
News
At the 99th session of the IMO’s Legal Committee, held in London between 16 and 20 April, a proposal by Indonesia to revise IMO’s strategic direction was blocked by Member States including UK, Norway, US and Canada. It was agreed that the issue would only be discussed under ‘any other business’ in future meeting.
Revising the strategic direction to include offshore oil and gas activities in IMO’s mandate would have opened the door for developing international mechanisms to cover liability and compensation for damage arising from offshore drilling accidents.
Indonesia’s proposal to develop a global liability regime for offshore oil exploration and exploitation activities follows an accident at the Montara oil platform in Australian waters in 2009, which caused significant environmental damage in the Timor Sea. The lack of transboundary agreements left Indonesia uncompensated for the damage.
Prior to the London meeting, the Clean Shipping Coalition – of which Bellona is a member – called on the IMO to support the Indonesian proposal as the most appropriate international forum to advance the development of a global regime.
“An oil spill caused by an offshore exploration or exploitation accident sees no boundaries and might occur in any part of the world. International regulation is essential to ensure that the polluter pays, not taxpayers in neighbouring countries” Bellona’s Svend Søyland stated in the Clean Shipping Coalition’s press release.
The proposal, which was blocked by Member States at the meeting, has received prior support from the European Commission, who has observer status in the IMO.
Member States opposing the proposal argued that it fell without the scope of the IMO, which is largely restricted to shipping issues. There are however already today a number of rules and regulations that go beyond just shipping impacts, such as the requirement for offshore installations to meet rules relating to the dumping of garbage.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.