IAPH to introduce Environmental Ship Index

Under the auspices of the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH), the World Ports Climate Initiative (WPCI) will introduce the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), an international standard for calculating emissions by ships, from January 2011.
Ports and other nautical service providers will be able to use the index to reward clean ships, and so contribute to encouraging sustainability in the shipping industry.
Participation by shipowners is voluntary. They can calculate the emissions of their vessels on the newly-constructed website www.environmentalship index.org.
Participating vessels will receive a certificate that may form the basis of a reward system employed by ports and other nautical service providers, discounting port dues, rates and the like.
ESI identifies seagoing vessels that perform better in reducing emissions than required by the current emission standards set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which are based on the amount of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur oxide (SOx) that is released by the ship.
In addition, ESI tests for the presence of a management plan for the greenhouse gas emissions of the ship.
ESI is, therefore, a good indication of the environmental performance of the ship, and will identify clean ships in a general way.
Modern sea-going vessels with clean engines that use low-sulphur bunker oil in ports score high on ESI.
Over the last two years, the ports of Le Havre, Bre-men, Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam have worked together closely to develop ESI, Exim News Service reports.

Source: Transportweekly