Is the IMO the most appropriate body to monitor environmental standards for the shipping industry?
A – The IMO is a truly global organisation. Although it is sometimes criticised as being slow to implement solutions, it is probably the most efficient multilateral body in terms of implementation and ratification of international conventions – and certainly achieves results more rapidly than most United Nations multilateral organisations. The IMO works as a consensual body and its conventions must be ratified by a critical mass of its member states. It also works closely together with private sector and business interests, ranging from shipyards to oil companies, as well as non government organisations such as Friends of the Earth. Thus, the IMO processes lead to truly consensual, global solutions to the challenges in all areas of the shipping industry, including the environment. Shipping is perhaps the most global industry sector. A typical oil tanker, for example, perhaps built in Japan, will be transporting a cargo on behalf of a multinational oil company, on an intercontinental ro
