Progress on developing draft lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon intensity guidelines for marine fuels and assessment of impacts of GHG measures has been made by an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) working group.
The Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships (ISWG-GHG 11), which met remotely March 14-18, noted the urgency of the development of draft lifecycle GHG and carbon intensity guidelines for marine fuels.
The working group agreed that the standalone technical lifecycle guidelines would cover well-to-wake, including well-to-tank and tank-to-wake, emission values, but that any regulatory application of the guidelines would be defined in a separate process.
The working group also agreed that the main “initial” feedstocks to be included in the draft LCA guidelines would not be considered as “priority” fuels to avoid discriminating against other possible feedstocks and pathways and prejudging further discussions.
A candidate short-term measure in the IMO Initial GHG Strategy refers to developing “robust lifecycle GHG/carbon intensity guidelines for all types of fuels, in order to prepare for an implementation programme for effective uptake of alternative low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels”.
The lifecycle refers to the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from the fuel production to the ship (well-to-wake); from primary production to carriage of the fuel in a ship’s tank (well-to-tank, also known as upstream emissions) and from the ship’s fuel tank to the exhaust (tank-to-propeller or tank-to-wake, also known as downstream emissions).
Read the full outcome of the meeting here.
