MSC 109: cyber standards and emission reductions

Last week, at the 109th meeting of the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 109), IAPH co-sponsored a submission proposing to further develop cybersecurity standards for ships and port facilities to protect against increasing cyber threats and risks. There was general agreement on an urgent need for enhanced, holistic cybersecurity measures; some delegations further added that the current standards need to be broadened beyond the ship-to-port interface to include stakeholders in the wider supply chain. Upon agreeing that further work was required, the committee invited member states and international organisations to submit proposals on next steps to the next meeting and agreed to extend the target completion date to 2026 for this output.
Another key agenda item was the ongoing work of the correspondence group on the ‘Development of Safety Regulatory Framework to Support the Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships Using New Technologies and Alternative Fuels’, which provided an interim report to the meeting. Approximately 51 recommendations were being developed to address identified barriers and gaps in IMO instruments that may need to be amended to support the safe reduction of GHG emissions. This includes draft amendments to the SOLAS Convention that were agreed at the meeting to clarify the application of the IGF Code to gas fuels. Finally, delegations were also updated on best-practice examples presented in a submission from Belgium and The Netherlands on the fight to combat illicit trade and organised crime in the maritime industry.
Source: IAPH