The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has opened a new regional centre at Shanghai Maritime University in China to help reduce harmful emissions from ships.

The new centre has been designed to serve the wider Asian region and forms a part of the European Union (EU) funded, IMO-run Global Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre (MTCC) Network (GMN).

It will also promote energy-efficient technologies and operations in the shipping sector, and is a component of IMO’s two-pronged initiative to help mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the global shipping industry.

The GMN project brings selected technology centres together to form a global network that is focused on supporting developing countries in various activities, including the development of national energy-efficiency policies for their respective maritime sectors.

"The new centre has been designed to serve the wider Asian region and forms a part of the European Union funded, IMO-run Global Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre Network."

International Maritime Organisation secretary-general Kitack Lim said: “I see our regulatory work and our capacity-building initiatives as a double-headed assault on the problem of shipping emissions.

“Together, they send a clear signal about how seriously this Organisation treats this issue, how determined it is to address it, and how prepared we are to roll up our sleeves and take practical measures to do so.”

The new MTCC-Asia centre will have two offices in Shanghai and has joined an existing network of MTCC centres in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific.

Image: Opening ceremony of new Global Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre at Shanghai Maritime University in China. Photo: courtesy of International Maritime Organization (IMO).