Assessment of impacts on States

The Initial IMO GHG strategy and and the revised 2023 IMO GHG Strategy recognize that the impacts on States of (a) proposed measure(s) should be assessed and taken into account as appropriate, with particular attention paid to the needs of developing countries, especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

In 2019, MEPC 74 approved a Procedure for assessing impacts on States of candidate measures (MEPC.1/Circ.885) and MEPC 79 approved a revised procedure (MEPC.1/Circ.885/Rev.1) following the 'lessons-learned' exercise following the completion of the comprehensive impact assessment of the short-term GHG reduction measure.

This procedure provides in particular that impact assessment should be "simple, inclusive, transparent, flexible, evidence-based, measure-specific" and, inter alia, consider the following areas:

geographic remoteness of and connectivity to main markets;
cargo value and type;
transport dependency;
transport costs;
food security;
disaster response;
cost-effectiveness; and
socio-economic progress and development.

Comprehensive impact assessment of the mid-term GHG reduction measure

MEPC 80 (July 2023) invited the Secretary-General to establish the Steering Committee on the comprehensive impact assessment of the basket of candidate midterm measures and requested the Steering Committee to conduct the comprehensive impact assessment in accordance with the revised procedure (MEPC.1/Circ.885/Rev.1) and agreed terms of reference (MEPC 80/17/Add.1, annex 16).

The comprehensive impact assessment of the IMO's mid-term GHG reduction measure is funded through the IMO GHG TC Trust Fund, undertaken with the contribution of external stakeholders and carried out under the supervision a Steering Committee composed of volunteer Member States coordinated by the Vice-Chair of MEPC. Following the terms of reference approved by MEPC 80 , the tasks and organizations responsible for or supporting each task were agreed by the Steering Committee as follows:

Task 1 - Literature review (World Maritime University); Executive summary of the report on Task 1 Full report on Task 1 Task 2 - Assessment of impacts of the measure on the fleet (DNV); Executive summary of the report on Task 2 Full report on Task 2 Task 3 - Assessment of impacts of the measure on States (UNCTAD); Executive summary of the report on Task 3 Full report on Task 3 Task 4 - Complementary qualitative/quantitative stakeholders' analysis, including relevant illustrative case studies (Starcrest); and Executive summary of the report on Task 4 Full report on Task 4 Task 5 - Identification of areas of missing data, quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC), uncertainty and sensitivity analyses and integration between various tasks (nominated external reviewers by members of the Steering Committee). Report of the Steering Committee on the comprehensive impact assessment of the basket of candidate GHG reduction mid-term measures

Following consideration, MEPC 82 approved in general the report of the Steering Committee on the conduct of the comprehensive impact assessment and noted the outcomes of the various tasks of comprehensive impact assessment of the basket of candidate mid-term GHG reduction measures. The Committee further agreed to carry out further work on assessing the potential impacts of the possible policy scenarios assessed under the comprehensive impact assessment on food security, in particular on essential food commodities and critical agricultural input, notably in net food-importing developing countries. Finally, the Committee agreed to take into account, as appropriate, the outcomes of the comprehensive impact assessment, the documents submitted and comments made during this session, together with the supplementary information on potential impacts on food security to be submitted to MEPC 83, as well as other relevant scientific sources in the further development of the basket of candidate mid-term measures.

Comprehensive impact assessment of the short-term GHG reduction measure

A comprehensive impact assessment of the IMO's short-term GHG reduction measure funded through the IMO GHG TC Trust Fund was undertaken in spring 2021 with the contribution of external stakeholders and carried out under the supervision a Steering Committee composed of volunteer Member States coordinated by the Vice-Chair of MEPC. Following the terms of reference approved by MEPC 75 (November 2020), the tasks and organizations responsible for or supporting each task were agreed by the Steering Committee as follows:

Task 1 - Literature review (World Maritime University); Task 2 - Assessment of the impact of the measure on the fleet (DNV); Task 3 - Assessment of the impact of the measure on States (UNCTAD); Task 4 - Stakeholder analysis (Starcrest); Task 5 - Identification of areas of missing data (Starcrest); Task 6 - COVID-19 considerations (Secretariat); and Task 7 - Disproportionately negative impacts (Secretariat/Steering Committee).

This assessment was submitted to and approved by MEPC 76 in June 2021, before the adoption of the said measure. The full report can be downloaded from IMODOCS (documents MEPC 76/7/13 and MEPC 76/INF.68 and addenda).

In response to the findings of the comprehensive impact assessment of IMO's short-term measure, IMO also initiated an IMO project, funded through the IMO GHG TC Trust Fund, aimed at improving the availability of maritime transport costs data in the Pacific region.