GIA Task Force Met in Sweden

The Global Industry Alliance (GIA), a key International Maritime Organization (IMO)  initiative supporting ship decarbonisation, is set to be extended to 2023, in line with the time-frame of IMO’s Initial greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) Strategy.

The UN body announced that the extension follows two years of good progress by the initiative, whose 6th Task Force meeting took place in Gothenberg, Sweden this week (25 June).

The task force discussed developments in a number of on-going projects, including the upcoming release of the first of three ‘Energy Efficient Ship Operation’ e-learning courses, which will be made available free of charge.

Work is progressing on the second course, which will provide guidance on how seafarers working in engine and deck departments can contribute to reducing fuel consumption. Course three will be aimed at shipping companies and ports and what they can do to contribute to energy-efficient shipping.

Just-in-time (JIT) ship operation was also on the agenda, including how to address existing contractual and operational barriers. The group discussed how the required exchange of data between ships, ports and terminal could be further incentivized – and agreed to reach out to the aviation industry to learn how, through global data sharing, the aviation industry has improved the reliability of arrival slots.

The GIA is an innovative public-private partnership initiative of the IMO, under the framework of the GEF-UNDP-IMO Global Maritime Energy Efficiency Partnerships (GloMEEP) Project that aims to bring together maritime industry leaders to support an energy efficient and low carbon maritime transport system.