This week, the International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s Maritime Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) has been holding its MEPC77, where subjects under discussion include timing of endorsing tougher goals on decarbonization, the feasibility of implementing “Market Based Measures” to drive the switch to new fuels, and the establishment of a fund to support research and demonstration projects. The meeting itself has a distinctly diplomatic tone (after all, the IMO, is part of the United Nations, where nomenclature routinely includes words like “Secretariats”, “Plenary” and the like). There will be plenty of articles devoted to what MEPC77 did and (did not) accomplish, along with descriptions of which delegations said exactly what. Suffice it to say that there were no surprises here.
The worldwide pandemic, with a duration that is now approaching two years, took the physical meetings of the IMO- in its headquarters on the South Bank of the River Thames, into the virtual realm. MEPC 76, held in June, along with those of various working groups between sessions were totally virtual. So it was that I obtained a media pass to watch the meetings online, as well as gain access to documents and background materials. With travel restrictions being lifted, MEPC77 saw some delegates actually located physically in London. But the notion of “lowest common denominator” applies here- even those physically present need to go onto the IMO platform (not Zoom but something similar) where some connections are better than others. And some connections are downright awful- which causes great angst to intrepid writers who are looking for the perfect quote. That little spinning wheel on the screen is a death-knell for accurate quotes- a prerequisites stories for insightful stories, according to old school editors. The moderator (officially- the “Chairman” of the MEPC, or just “Chair”) of the MEPC online meetings, who actually does a great job, lamented the substandard headsets of participants- though I think there is much more to it. More on the do’s and don’ts of quotes from the IMO in a minute or two.
The moderator’s job at the virtual IMO meetings borders on the impossible. Virtual confabs are limited to three hours each day; okay some of them run a little bit over. Many of the constraints seem to center around interpreters, who also do an amazing job (consider that the 170+ IMO members are speaking dozens of languages). So in one great riff during Wednesday sessions, running way over their allotted times, the Chair asked speakers to go slowly (so the translators could keep up) while simultaneously limiting their allowed speaking slots to two minutes (in order to cram in more speakers). Then, it gets better (not the fault of the Chair- quite the opposite actually, he was trying to get everybody talking). When one delegate suggested that they keep yacking/ debating/ discussing sans the interpreters, this “point of order” then took another 20 minutes to debate, taking time away from 10 speakers, in theory. That is slightly, but not totally moot; the delegates follow up their two or three minute presentations with written submissions. But, still, live (or on-screen) speeches loom much larger than pdf files.
Like any other event at the intersection of tradition and new views on transparency, they got into “Social Media”, with a few of the delegates pointing fingers at journalists for real and imagined affronts on Twitter. The IMO’s top media guy actually had to go onto the screen, in an effort talk some of the shocked/ insulted/ wounded delegations off the ledge, as the violations of protocol had been few. Insults and nasty language on social media describing the meetings is not allowed. Nor are “live” tweets, ie precisely as the meeting is happening (though there seems to be some ambiguity on what timing comprises an acceptable delay interval). When broadcasting your quotes (or writing, the old-fashioned way), you can mention countries or organizations (NGOs) but not delegate names. Veterans of the IMO beat tell me that transparency is far greater than only a few years ago, so I will bite my tongue, count my blessings for online access, and look forward to the next session.
