A subtle shift in rhetoric has seen IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez turn the tables on industry demands for regulatory clarity and highlight the reciprocal requirement for private partnership and proactive engagement. Dominguez, ‘It’s now [every single actor’s] turn to take actions in how they define their own goals in decarbonizing.’ Regulation alone will not be sufficient to decarbonize the maritime sector; it requires more proactive engagement from industry stakeholders across the supply chain, says Arsenio Dominguez, the secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization. For several months now, industry executives have been publicly calling on the IMO to ensure the expected regulatory framework set to be agreed next year will be sufficiently robust to close the price gap between green and fossil fuels. Now, in a subtle shift of narrative, the IMO secretary-general is turning the table on the industry arguing that it’s time for everyone to play their part and act. The IMO “will deliver, I am confident of that,” Dominguez told Lloyd’s List. “But it’s time that the industry also recognises that the more you ask the IMO for guidance, the more we are going to provide it and that comes with requirements for the industry to act, to take the first steps,” he said. “If you want more regulations, we can provide more regulations. When you ask us for flexibility, we can see how flexibility can be introduced without having a detrimental effect on our regulatory process. But at the same time, I will continue to call on every single actor out there to actually take action and be more proactive. It’s now their turn to take actions in how they define their own goals in decarbonizing.”[1]
Following many months of detailed focus on the IMO’s ability to deliver the technical and economic measures next year required to meet the UN agency’s 2050 decarbonization goals, the SG’s comments represent a small but significant shift in focus towards a more proactive process of industry engagement in defining regulation.
The internal IMO debate continues to focus on areas of convergence on defining the legal framework for the IMO Net Zero Framework. A period of technical and political negotiations lies ahead between now and the next Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting, to resolve areas of divergence, and further refine the draft text before approval at MEPC83 in April 2025 and adoption in autumn 2025.
Red Sky Alliance says that decarbonization issues are real, but we highlight maritime cyber security issues; stressing is as just as important.
https://redskyalliance.org/xindustry/unique-maritime-challenges
https://redskyalliance.org/xindustry/maritime-cyber-security-is-a-hoax
Externally, however Dominguez has been on a world tour of key industry events since the most recent MEPC closed on 4 October and the focus has now switched to industry engagement and what follows next year’s pivotal agreements. Across dozens of speeches Dominguez has repeated the same key talking points, namely that the IMO is actively looking for private sector engagement from those sectors prepared to be bold. Partly, that has been a case of issuing a pointed reminder to industry that existing regulations must be adhered to. But he has also been seeking out industry input, both good and bad, on the process of regulation in anticipation of what happens next within the IMO.
“Ask not what the IMO can do for you, but what you can do for the IMO,” quipped one executive on stage at the recent Global Maritime Forum in Tokyo, as Dominguez set about fielding another session of questions from the gathered industry executives. The misquoted John F. Kennedy call to action raised a laugh, but it also summed up the current approach. “One of my objectives is to continue to highlight the importance of the organization and the successes that we have achieved, but at the same time it is essential to listen to the comments and the constructive criticism because they will only allow us to be better,” he said.
In speeches that issue key phrase reminders of “collaboration”, “engagement” and action, the SG has been pursuing an agenda of closer industry partnerships. “It’s about looking forward in a more proactive way, to introduce the changes that this industry requires to modernize, to truly be sustainable, to decarbonize and to actually attract the younger generations and the professionals of the futures that are looking at us and what we do, and getting them to be part of it.”
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The “dark fleet” moniker first evolved more than three years ago, after tankers were observed switching off their vessel tracking transponders to avoid detection and obfuscate the origin and destination of US sanctioned oil they carried. |
The Dark Fleet - Away from the headline topic of decarbonization, Dominguez remains confident that the IMO retains the capacity to tackle the heavy work agenda on other key topics, particularly the dark fleet and safety.
Responding to questions about how the IMO can tackle the safety risks associated with the so-called dark fleet of ships engaged in sanctioned trades, Dominguez continues to tread a difficult political line as the head of a UN agency that counts Russia and Iran as member states. Rather than addressing sanctions, Dominguez says he is focused on addressing the continuing threat posed by substandard shipping. “That’s nothing new at IMO. It is something we’ve been working on for decades,” he said, pointing out that new work on fraudulent registries and substandard shipping was due to be debated in the next legal committee. “I will fully recognize the role and the jurisdictions when it comes to the ship registrations around the world, but the fact is that that doesn’t stop the IMO looking at this as a regulatory process and considering the actions that need to be taken to assist those countries that probably need it the most to run what we call a quality ship registry that complies with the international regulation,” he explained.
On the topic of safety, which continues to be the central purpose of the IMO, Dominguez agrees that the green agenda has taken center stage over recent years but argues that safety must remain the focal point of all work inside the organization.
“The green agenda has put the organization on the map, and what I'm doing is taking that opportunity to highlight how safety and the human element lies at the heart of everything we do. It is essential that we take every opportunity to invest in the people, to treat them better on board the ships, because that will be the only way that we will have a sustainable shipping community.”
Link to Lloyd’s Dark Fleet Report: Lloyds_Whitepaper_-_Shifty_Shades_of_Grey.pdf
Red Sky will again call out the IMO to place maritime cyber security on equal footing with the maritime decarbonization issue.
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[1] https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1151166/Its-time-for-shipping-to-be-more-proactive-says-IMO-secretarygeneral
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