ABOUT THE PROJECT

Environmental practices, air pollution regulations, cost of marine fuels, and higher taxes will stimulate demand for improving energy efficiency in maritime transportation. Ship energy efficiency measures offer many choices to ship owners and operators to increase fuel savings and reduce carbon emissions. In 2011, IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) adopted the amendments to International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex VI, as a new chapter (Chapter 4). Through this, Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) for new ships and Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) for all ships has been made compulsory from 1 January 2013.

Although there are many options to enhance ship energy efficiency, these measures are not always effectively implemented due to the insufficient education of staff/ lack of expertise and existence of barriers to energy efficiency. The gap between optimal and actual implementation is explained as ship energy efficiency barriers. While the industry has made efforts to raise the awareness of stakeholders, little research has been done to capture the perspectives of ship operators. Efficient use of energy will be only possible by increasing the awareness of those people who operate ships, including seafarers and shore-based personnel.

The project MarEd (Maritime Education for Energy Efficiency) will develop a tool to train and acquire qualification for all marine staffs in different level of job including both on board personnel such as ship captains, chief engineers, officers and etc. and energy efficiency dedicated staff in shipping companies such as superintendents, fleet managers, energy managers and etc. through a distance learning course that provides modules to teach and understand the implementation of energy efficiency policies and MARPOL Annex VI.