Ship owners and operators are currently in a tough situation because of high cost of bunker fuel and massive excess capacity in tonnage, says Svend Soeyland, senior adviser at Bellona Foundation.Fuel costs constitute roughly 60-70 percent of operating cost for a ship. Properly maintained propeller and hull surfaces alone hold the potential of saving the world fleet up to 30 billion USD and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by 0.3 percent of total man made emissions, begging Soeyland  to ask the question: Would you pay more upfront if you could get savings and reduce your carbon footprint over time?
The Bellona Foundation, a member of the Clean Shipping Coalition, in cooperation with the Norwegian paint manufacturer Jotun, convened a second workshop in London on the 9-10th May. The meeting took place in the offices of Intertanko.
As in the previous workshop in Oslo, experts from all relevant stakeholders took part. Participants included major ship paint manufacturers, performance monitoring technology providers, classification societies as well as shipowners.
“We have progressed with great speed since submitting our first rough proposal to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in February 2012,” said Soeyland.
“Delegates to the Marine Environment Committee provided a nudge for further work, which encouraged us to start the process of getting a standard approved by the International Standardization Organization (ISO),” he said, adding, “It is important to note that we are not seeking a ‘one size fits all’ solution or the creation of a mandatory regulation. An ISO standard will be used by stakeholders based on its merit as a reliable and transparent voluntary standard.”
He noted that the Bellona Foundation regards performance standards of this kind to be a good basis for improving an understanding of what can be achieved, and emphasizes whatever instruments or market-based measures that may emerge in the future should be based on standards of the same kind of rigor and environmental integrity as the proposed hull and propeller performance measurement standard.
On May 30, the ISO will decide if Bellona has provided a satisfactory outline for a new standard. Bellona will, together with the 40 plus stakeholders, follow the work of both the ISO and the IMO. A more comprehensive draft should be submitted by November 13, 2013. Their work toward a standard within ISOS has a three-year deadline.
 “The Bellona Foundation believes that standards established by affected players will be much more effective and fit for purpose than waiting for bureaucrats to establish regulations that normally carry a higher transaction cost and also aim to meet an unfeasible target of one size fits all,” said Soeyland.
Source: Bellona