We are now more than a month on from the implementation of CII and EEXI, and also more than a month on from the heated debate that gripped our industry the latter part of 2022.
We’ve heard much discussion around what CII’s actual impact will be. Watson Farley Williams’ overview of CII from December of last year, which can be read here, is a particularly good account of the pros and cons of the new regulation.
Like them, I tend to agree that CII will have to be re-examined to better accommodate “the practical commercial realities that vessels encounter” during normal operations. I also agree that CII will require close collaboration between owners and charterers, although this already happens to a good extent in tanker shipping, due to the nature of the cargo we carry and the high safety requirements that we must meet.
Questions still exist on compliance and enforcement. We know that vessels that fail to meet the correct criteria and that receive a low rating will be required to adopt an improvement plan, but how this is achieved and monitored remains uncertain.
I, and the team at Stena Bulk, support the new regulation, as we would with any requirement that would push our sector towards lower emissions.
It’s also very important to recognise that CII’s global and unilateral nature is a step in the right direction for our sector, particularly as things are only going to get more fragmented in the future.
However, I agree with the general consensus that the CII framework as it currently exists is not ideal and will probably not, in itself, enable the transformative changes our sector needs. But it is an excellent first step in driving more transparency and collaboration, and in promoting high-quality and more sustainable tonnage.
We must also not underestimate the awareness it has generated – any debate on sustainability is good debate! – and how this will better gear us up in the future to design other decarbonisation rules.
It has also been great to see the rapid evolution of new solutions to help us all manage the new rules. Digitalisation has really come to the fore here.
By Erik Hånell, President & CEO of Stena Bulk
January 2023