The 107th meeting of the IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 107) took place from 31 May to 9 June and was attended by Rhona Macdonald, Pascal Ollivier and Frans van Zoelen. On the agenda was a submission by IAPH highlighting the critical importance of cybersecurity as an inherent component of the Maritime Single Window (MSW). This paper also stressed the need for capacity-building and cooperation to implement a cyber secure MSW by the 1 January 2024 deadline. This was submitted alongside a proposal by Australia and others for a new output to revise the Guidelines on Maritime Cyber Risk Management to include the latest cybersecurity guidance and identify next steps to enhance maritime cybersecurity.

The Committee welcomed these papers with strong support from delegations for a separate output to emphasise the importance and urgency of this topic, and it was ultimately agreed to include a separate item on this on the provisional agenda for the next session. MSC also addressed safety requirements in relation to the energy transition and agreed on the establishment of a new output to carry out a comprehensive regulatory assessment to deliver a regulatory framework for the safe reduction of GHG emissions from ships which will support IMO in achieving its decarbonisation goal.

Finally, discussions on the development of a goal-based instrument for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) highlighted the need to address the common issues and gaps identified from the regulatory scoping exercises, including, the sharing of information as part of the obligation to communicate with port states and port authorities. It was agreed that this matter will be addressed in the relative correspondence and working groups, and at a planned seminar on the implications, challenges and opportunities of MASS operations for ports and public authorities. A full report on the outcomes of MSC 107 has been distributed among members of the IAPH Risk and Resilience and Legal Committees.
Source: IAPH