New Book: IMO 2020: A Regulatory Tsunami

Dr. Pablo Rodas-Martini has produced a book IMO 2020: A Regulatory Tsunami. 

He says: “Since IMO 2020 will drastically switch the composition of marine fuels and since there has not been such a dramatic change for decades, the comparison made mainly with the latest technological revolution - from coal to oil - obviously comes to mind.”

Rodas-Martini is a Senior Associate of SQ Consult, a Dutch company specializing in carbon markets and climate change. He is the expert in charge of shipping emissions, shipping decarbonization, and, in general, environmental issues for the maritime industry. He has a Ph.D. and MSc from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. 

The book includes the following chapters: 

Chapter 1. A view to the past    
Chapter 2. What is IMO 2020? Why was it approved?    
Chapter 3. The top six certainties of IMO 2020    
Chapter 4. Three mistakes in the making of IMO 2020    
Chapter 5. How does IMO 2020 relate to shipping decarbonization?    
Chapter 6. Is IMO 2020 helping LNG to become the fifth column?    
Concluding remarks    

There are plenty of summaries and guidelines about IMO 2020, most of them enumerating the various topics, Rodas-Martini takes a different approach, a more historical one, to appreciate how the regulation evolved into the format that entered into force on January 1, 2020. 

According to the Rodas-Martini, the IMO made three mistakes in the process of approving IMO 2020. Any human endeavor has risks, and IMO 2020 is no exception. He says, in this case, the risks are too high. The IMO should have commissioned three additional studies on before reaching its decision, he says. 
  
Rodas-Martini answers to the question: What exactly does IMO 2020 mean for the decarbonization effort? He says: “Listening and reading the enthusiastic comments about LNG, one is tempted to forget that, in the end, LNG is still a fossil fuel and, as a fossil fuel, will never be carbon-neutral. The short- and medium-term advantages of LNG, however, are undeniable, mainly when compared with HSFO, the dirtiest of all marine fuels.”  

The book is available here.