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Funding arrangements for continuation of the work of GESAMP/EHS
11.19 The Committee recalled the discussions at MEPC 54 regarding the difficulties in funding the GESAMP/EHS meetings and that it would further consider this issue at this session (MEPC 55/11/1). Concerning the short-term funding aspect, the Secretariat had followed the Committee's suggestion at MEPC 54 to use the 2007 budgetary allocation to fund a second session of GESAMP/EHS in 2006. Consequently, the 43rd session of GESAMP/EHS had been held in June 2006 at IMO Headquarters.
11.20 The Committee noted with appreciation that the Government of Venezuela had made a generous offer of US$ 50,000 at the ninety-sixth session of the Council in June 2006 for convening the regular 44th session of GESAMP/EHS in 2007. The administrative arrangements for incorporation of the Venezuelan funds in the work planning for 2007 were currently being completed and the short-term funding issues to cover the costs of GESAMP/EHS activities had thus been resolved.
11.21 With regard to the issue of finding long-term funding solutions, the Committee recalled its suggestion at MEPC 54 that such solutions might involve those cargo interests, namely manufacturers of the chemical products, which benefited directly from the hazard assessment evaluation work done by GESAMP/EHS (MEPC 54/24, paragraphs 10.33 to 10.37).
11.22 The Secretary presented an initial outline of elements that could be used for a long-term funding solution, which had been developed along the lines of the funding arrangements for the GESAMP-Ballast Water Working Group established in 2005:
.1 the Working Group on the Evaluation of the Safety and Pollution Hazards (ESPH 12) held in September 2006, in discussing the implications for its work of the entry into force of the revised MARPOL Annex II and the amended IBC Code as per 1 January 2007, had proposed that, for instance when a manufacturer submitted information about the components of tank cleaning additives for evaluation by GESAMP/EHS, a so-called "owner-pays principle" could be applied;
.2 a payment by a manufacturer could be a fee per chemical submitted for evaluation or for multiple entries;
.3 the monies received by IMO should enable it to cover the fees and travel costs of 7 to 8 experts involved in sessions of GESAMP/EHS, as well as the costs of technical support (dossier preparation) provided by the Secretariat;
.4 payments directly to GESAMP would not be possible, as GESAMP was not a legal entity but a joint advisory body of the UN Organizations. Instead, payments should be made to IMO, in its role as the Administrative Secretariat for and on behalf of GESAMP; and
.5 although the routeing of manufacturers' fees through a national Administration would be preferable, this was often regarded as a burden for the Administrations involved. A practical solution would thus have to be found for the routeing of such fees.
11.23 The Committee was invited to discuss this issue further and, upon agreement of suitable suggestions for a long-term funding solution, to instruct the Secretariat to elaborate these further in collaboration with the Chairman of GESAMP/EHS.
11.24 In responding to the suggestions by the Secretariat, many delegations agreed that a long-term solution to fund the work of GESAMP-EHS should be found. In discussion, the following points were raised:
.1 if a system for financing the evaluation of individual components in cleaning additives would be developed, for instance on the basis of the so-called "owner-pays principle" as suggested in ESPH 12, it should be taken into account that an identical system might also be used for evaluation of bulk liquids in the future so as to avoid the development of two systems in isolation;
.2 one delegation expressed the view that manufacturers should not be charged for the costs to evaluate the hazards of chemical substances carried by ships; another delegation expressed the view that, whilst a procedure was now in place for evaluation of the hazards of chemicals by the GESAMP-EHS Working Group, it would favour self-classification by the industry.
.3 if manufacturers / transporters of chemicals timely provided all the required data for hazard evaluation, one meeting of GESAMP/EHS per year might be sufficient; and
.4 the current fee for the evaluation of Active Substances to be used in ballast water management systems stood at US$ 50,000 per application. If a fee system to fund the work of GESAMP/EHS in future would be agreed, the level of fees per chemical would in all likelihood be substantially lower than US$ 50,000.
11.25 The Committee agreed to instruct the Secretariat to develop a long-term funding arrangement for the work of GESAMP/EHS based on the suggestions by the Secretariat and the comments made. The aim would be to submit a fully developed funding arrangement for consideration at MEPC 56 with a view to its adoption and use in preparation for the GESAMP/EHS activities in 2008. In this regard, the Secretariat was requested to forward the draft funding arrangement to the ESPH Working Group at BLG 11 for review and finalization before submitting it to MEPC 56.
GESAMP report on "Estimates of Oil Entering the Marine Environment from Sea-based Activities"
11.26 The Secretary introduced document MEPC 55/11/7 which provided an executive summary and the recommendations of the recently completed GESAMP Reports and Studies No.75 entitled "Estimates of Oil Entering the Marine Environment from Sea-based Activities". The full study had been distributed as MEPC 55/INF.5. The Secretary announced that the full study would also be published as soon as possible in the GESAMP Reports and Studies series.
11.27 It was recalled that MEPC 35, in 1994, requested GESAMP to evaluate carefully all available data sources on oil inputs into the marine environment from sea-based activities (i.e. maritime transportation, offshore exploration and production) and, particularly, to develop approaches that might be used for the provision of such input data. Hence, the terms of reference of the GESAMP Oil Input Working Group, which started its work in November 1997, were to estimate the current annual amounts of oil entering the marine environment from sea-based activities and to focus especially on improving the methodology of making such estimates.
11.28 The GESAMP report addressed both inputs and methodologies for making estimates and placed the various types of oil source inputs from ships and ship-related activities into perspective and also pointed out areas of uncertainty. The report covered the following four areas:
.1 approaches to making estimates of oil inputs;
.2 oil inputs from ships;
.3 oil inputs from offshore exploration and production; and
.4 other oil inputs and related topics.
11.29 The input values used in this report were estimates from both calculations and measurements. With the exception of the data on accidental discharges, most estimates lacked ranges or confidence limits, i.e. measures of variability. The greatest value of the presented input numbers, therefore, was that they gave a picture of relative inputs from the different global ship and sea-based sources and that they pointed to input sources requiring additional research, monitoring, assessment, regulatory and industry attention.
11.30 The average annual inputs of oil entering the marine environment, in metric tonnes per year, from ships and other sea-based activities, based on the most recent 10 year period of data available (1988-1997), were estimated in total at 1,245,200 tonnes per year with the breakdown as shown in paragraph 6.2 of document MEPC 55/11/7, and a further explanation given in paragraph 6.3.
11.31 The study also presented nine recommendations, as shown in MEPC 55/11/7, pages 7 and 8, stressing the need for improving the ability to provide oil input estimates. Such estimates were important for assessing the efficacy of MARPOL 73/78 and relevant national legislation, and for estimating risks of oiling to coastal and offshore marine ecosystems and living resources, in the years ahead.
11.32 The Committee's attention was drawn, in particular, to the following policy-oriented recommendations:
.1 (Recommendation 4): "The maintenance and precision of oily water separators on ships should be evaluated and enhanced, in order to control and reduce operational discharges of waste oils."
.2 (Recommendation 7): "The oil inputs from small craft activity (i.e. recreational craft) are a serious concern and should be extensively monitored and annually summarized." It was noted that the current data were largely based on North American data. The study recommended that the organization and funding of such an effort would need to be discussed within the Committee.
.3 (Recommendation 8): "Oil inputs from sunken vessels (e.g., war-related casualties) should be selectively monitored, given the number and location of vessels near vulnerable coastlines, and the ageing condition of the wrecks. The risks that such inputs posed to marine coastlines, living resources and ecosystems should be addressed with considerable urgency, given the aging condition of many WWII wrecks, and actions taken to reduce those risks."
11.33 Finally, the Committee was advised that the completion of this GESAMP study had taken 9 years, which was a very long time. The effect had been that the data used in the report mainly covered the period 1988 to 1997, which could be regarded as fairly old data by current standards. The Secretary advised that the new procedures and approaches which GESAMP had adopted in its Strategic Plan in 2004 should result in better planned and timely delivered advice in the future.
11.34 The delegation of the United Kingdom stated that the GESAMP study was a very valuable reference document. The delegation informed the Committee that in accordance with the OSPAR Convention the discharge of oil-based drilling muds had been phased out in the North-East Atlantic region since 1 January 2001 and that the current discharge standard for oil in production water in this region stood at 30 mg oil per litre water.
11.35 The Chairman observed that the summary of the annual inputs of oil entering the marine environment in the GESAMP study showed that most activities within the remit of the MEPC had been addressed, such as ships and offshore activities, and that the Committee should take the GESAMP study into account in its future considerations. However, there was one issue, which the Committee might wish to consider and that was the oil discharges generated by small craft. Although this item had featured in the Committee's work programme for many years and was currently included in the High-Level Action Plan, the Committee had yet to develop, as a starting point, Guidelines to address this issue.
11.36 The Committee agreed to invite delegations to consider the issue of oil discharges generated by small craft and submit proposals to a future session of the Committee.
11.37 The Committee expressed its appreciation to GESAMP for the provision of this long-awaited report, to Dr. Peter Wells (Canada) as the main author of the GESAMP study, to the members of the GESAMP Working Group which had prepared this study and also to the retired IMO employee Dr. Manfred Nauke to whom this report had been dedicated.
Assessment of Assessments under the UN Regular Process
11.38 The Committee was informed of the decisions at the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Steering Group of the "Assessment of Assessments" under the UN Regular Process, which had been held in June 2006 in New York (MEPC 55/11/9). The decisions addressed the organizational set up, the mandate, the arrangements for participation in, and the resource mobilization necessary for the conduct of the "Assessment of Assessments".
11.39 The Committee noted that Mr. Jean-Claude Sainlos had attended the Ad Hoc Steering Group meeting and had presented, in his capacity as the Administrative Secretary of GESAMP, GESAMP's offer to advise on the "Assessment of Assessments" and the wish that GESAMP be invited as an observer to attend future meetings of the Ad Hoc Steering Group. This offer had been welcomed and had resulted in the successful small GESAMP Workshop held from 18 to 20 September 2006 at IMO to peer review a draft UNEP-WCMC report updating a survey on global and regional marine assessment activities for use as a basic document in the "Assessment of Assessments" (MEPC 55/11/8).
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