Introduction - Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels - page 2

strict sense, though a ship can be used for dumping land-based wastes in the sea.
The organisation even expanded its work to areas like the ship-breaking industry,
which is essentially a land-based industry. However, all the IMO legal instruments
have some relation with ships in one way or other.
Gradual expansion of IMO

s work towards different aspects of environmental
pollution created some serious debate regarding the organisation

'

s mandate and
competence. For example, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC)
of IMO recently adopted mandatory energy efficiency measures for international
shipping, which are regarded as the first ever mandatory global Green House Gas
(GHG) emissions reduction legal instrument for an international industry. 3 In the
negotiation of this legal instrument, the conflict between the principle of Common
But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) and the IMO

'

s policy of equal treat-
ment was the central issue of debate between some leading developing and devel-
oped countries. 4 Through a submission, some developing countries stated that the
CBDR principle is the cornerstone of international climate change law. 5 These
countries are of the opinion that introducing the same responsibilities to ships flying
the flag of all countries, irrespective of their economic status, is a clear deviation
from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto
Protocol; breaching the principle of CBDR. 6 The new instrument has been adopted
in the wake of a threat of unilateral action by the European Union (EU), because a
European Commission representative had earlier hinted that the EU would take
unilateral action if no agreement on emissions reduction can be reached in the IMO
negotiation process. 7 Consequently, this instrument has not been reached by con-
sensus in the MEPC. 8 This indicates a future challenge. Although the instrument is
mandatory and global, some countries may not join to the instrument. Moreover,
IMO

'

s competence over the political and legal aspects of reduction of GHG
emissions from ships has been questioned by some developing countries. This is
a new challenge for IMO, as most of the IMO environmental legal instruments are
adopted by consensus. This polarisation between developed and developing coun-
tries may have a far reaching impact on the implementation of IMO legal
instruments.
IMO is mainly dominated by developed countries with large shipping interests.
For ensuring greater participation many institutional and procedural changes and
reforms are needed. 9 More emphasis should be given for treaty implementation
than treaty-making by allocating more resources towards implementing existing
treaties. To ensure global implementation of international marine environmental

'

3

See Chap. 6 .
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Tan ( 2006 ), pp. 374 and 375.