THE International Maritime Organization is routinely used as a scapegoat by those who are complicit in its shortcomings. Such is the lot of the multilateral system to bear the political pretences of those seeking cover amid its many failings.

But amid the impenetrable jargon, square brackets and bureaucratic buck-passing, progress is more than possible.

Many may scoff at such claims, but by UN standards the IMO is a highly effective technical body. Its problems start when it runs into politics beyond its mandate.

Decarbonisation and international security are never going to be solely resolved within the walls of IMO’s London HQ, but the collective will of 176 member state must nonetheless navigate those issues where they can.

The quietly elegant solution of depoliticising contentious issues such as Black Sea security and dark fleet politics via a more technocratic approach on areas within the IMO’s control is a pragmatic response from an increasingly resolute IMO secretariat.

Its lead should be taken as an indicator of complications to come for the rest of the industry.

Second-guessing what the specifics of a Trump 2.0 sanctions policy will, or won’t, include is a mostly hypothetical exercise for now, but it would be prudent to assume that increased compliance complexity is a fair bet.

Last week, the largely legal discussions inside the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds made clear the alarming risk that we now face — namely that an increasing volume transport of oil is now being conducted by unsafe and uninsured ships.

What’s perhaps more concerning this far into the discussion is that most governments have no clear ability to penetrate the opaque structures behind the dark, or “parallel” fleet.

Even well-resourced intelligence agencies privately admit that they have no idea where the beneficial ownership lies behind more than 50% of the ships calling in their waters.

The IOPC funds suggests it may be time to call in the private risk analysts and even journalists who have managed to routinely pierce the corporate veil and track a view into the parallel fleet.

A complete solution to the risk posed by the normalisation of a “parallel fleet” is unlikely to be resolved any time soon by any one body, government, or regulation. But a pragmatic sharing of open source intelligence, coupled with a depoliticised approach to cracking down on substandard shipping rather than the politics that is fuelling it, may be the most pragmatic approach we can hope for right now.

Richard Meade
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List

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