By Toby McIntosh
Moves by the International Maritime Organization toward more transparency come with caveats and limited acceptance by member states.
IMO’s disclosure policy, liberalized in 2018, permits member countries, and groups with official observer status, to make public their pre-meeting documents on IMODOCs, the official disclosure site. (See EYE article.)
But no documents are available in advance of an upcoming meeting of the working group on greenhouse gases produced by ships.
Sources told Eyeonglobaltransparency.net that 23 documents are visible to IMO members and accredited observers. However, none are visible to the public.
The Intersessional Working Group on Greenhouse Gases (ISWG-GHG) will begin five days of closed meetings on Nov. 11.
Even the agenda prepared by the Secretariat is not posted because of a wrinkle in the IMO disclosure policy. The Secretariat’s pre-meeting materials for the five major IMO committees must made available, but Secretariat documents for working groups do not need to be published.
No Documents for Greenhouse Gas Working Group
It seems unclear why no member country documents are available for the greenhouse gas working group meeting.
IMO officials have said they seek to encourage disclosure, but if so, they were not persuasive for the working group meeting. Even submissions by an environmental coalition, an advocate for IMO transparency, are not available.
“The submitters can tick a box, public access yes or no,” according to an IMO spokeswoman.
The IMO claims that since the policy was adopted, “a majority” of pre-meeting documents are being disclosed, but they have no data
In a spot-check on the policy by EYE earlier in 2019, concerning a environmental committee meeting, only one-quarter of the member governments disclosed their pre-meeting submissions. (See EYE article.)
According to sources who have viewed the nonpublic submissions for the working group meetings, there are 23 documents online. They were submitted both by countries that have opposed and supported greater transparency, including Japan, France, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Singapore. Environmental and industry groups also have sent in documents that are nonpublic.
Access to the nonpublic documents is available to member countries and to nongovernmental groups that have “observer” status.
No Access After Meeting Either
The working group documents will not be disclosed after the meeting.
This contrasts with the IMO policy for committee meetings, after which all pre-meeting documents go up on the IMODOCs.
Also the working group sessions are not open to media coverage.
By contrast, committee meetings are open to journalists, but with restrictions. (See June 2018 EYE article.)
An IMO spokeswoman said a summary of the working group sessions may be issued, stating:
We hope to issue some kind of summary at the end of the week. Will depend of course how much progress is made and if any firm recommendations – given there is another WG meeting in March 2020 to follow up.
Working Group Task
Little information is available on what will be discussed at the working group meeting.
The official charge for the working committee is:
- further consider concrete proposals to improve the operational energy efficiency of existing ships, with a view to developing draft amendments to Chapter 4 of MARPOL Annex VI and associated guidelines, as appropriate;
- further consider concrete proposals to reduce methane slip and emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs);consider a draft MEPC resolution urging Member States to develop and update a voluntary National Action Plan (NAP) with a view to contributing to reducing GHG emissions from international shipping, and develop associated guidelines, as appropriate;
- further consider concrete proposals to encourage the uptake of alternative low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels, including the development of lifecycle GHG/carbon intensity guidelines for all relevant types of fuels and incentive schemes, as appropriate; consider the development of further actions on capacity-building, technical cooperation, research and development, including support for assessment of impacts and support for implementation of measures; and consider other concrete proposals for candidate measures.
