Last week, IAPH attended the 12th meeting of the IMO's Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR 12), which saw member states and international organisations continue their discussions on the possible development of regulatory measures and instruments to address the risks associated with discharge water from Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS), better known as ‘scrubbers'. Several member states – Belgium, France, Finland, Italy, Canada and others – continue to push for tighter regulations and, in some cases, a global ban on the use of scrubbers.

Others remain opposed to the introduction of new regulatory measures and instead consider strengthening and updating the existing framework in the 2021 EGCS guidelines for new ships, and adopting a gradual approach to avoid undue penalisation of existing ships, to be a more appropriate approach. As there remains a clear divide among delegations on the impact of the use of scrubbers in support the IMO in reaching its climate goals, the Sub-Committee agreed to extend the target completion year for this output to 2026, subject to approval at MEPC 83, and invited member states to submit new concrete proposals to the next session on regulatory measures, reflecting the latest available data and taking into account the work conduction so far. A full report detailing the key points raised during these discussions and next steps will be disseminated to IAPH members.
Source: IAPH