Fiji Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF) and domestic ship operators have plans to improve energy efficiency within domestic ship operations, according to Pacific Community, an international development organisation owned and governed by the 26 Pacific region country and territory members
Fiji Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF) and domestic ship operators have plans to improve energy efficiency within domestic ship operations, according to Pacific Community, an international development organisation owned and governed by the 26 Pacific region country and territory members.
At the First National Workshop on Energy Efficient Operations of Ships, delivered by the Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre (MTCC) in the Pacific, the MTCC-Pacific program was unveiled, with its official launch scheduled for December 12-15, 2017.
MTCC-Pacific, an IMO implemented project funded by the EU, is intended to provide expert industry and government support to the region and enforce international standards on energy efficiency for the shipping sector.
At the project’s initiation, the process of accumulating baseline data will begin, which will be followed by improvements to stream-lining operations between the whole maritime industry and the instigation of a pilot project to retro-fit new technologies.
From December, 2017 the MTCC program for the Pacific region will be rolled out to the Pacific Island countries of Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Tonga and Marshall Islands, in order to raise awareness and offer the tools necessary to reduce fuel oil consumption and GHG emissions.
The National Workshop, held in Suva, Fiji on October 24-27, 2017, provided examples of the latest developments in reducing greenhouse (GHG) emissions at international level.
Many of these developments have been inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals, a central element of the Commonwealth’s commitment to sustainable consumption and development, and SDG14 was brought into discussion at the workshop as having direct relevance to the project’s efforts towards conservation of the Pacific Ocean.
New technologies, methods and tools used to monitor and reduce fuel oil consumption will be applied to the Fiji domestic shipping industry, Pacific Community said.
An estimated 2,131 vessels are operated in Fiji waters, all of which use fossil fuels.
In his opening address at the workshop, Pacific Community’s Director of Geoscience, Energy and Maritime Division, Dr Andrew Jones said: “Reducing fuel oil consumption and adopting new maritime technologies will make an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Fiji, and meeting its Nationally Determined Contributions.
“The maritime sector has a critical role to play in national efforts and MTCC-Pacific has been established to build the capacity of Pacific Island countries and lead by example in this goal”.
