The fund is being proposed as the shipping industry aims to centralize and streamline research and development investments into related projects and scale them up in order to prevent the capsizing of large sums of capital.

The core funding will be raised over a ten-year period under the proposal made in 2019 via a mandatory $2 R&D donation per tonne of fuel oil purchased for consumption. The IMO will oversee the fund.

BIMCO, ICS, INTERTANKO, INTERCARGO, CLIA, INTERFERRY, World Shipping Council, and INTERNATIONAL PARCEL TANKERS ASSOCIATION are the international shipowner organizations making up this proposal, which collectively represent all industries and trade and more than 90% of the world's merchant fleet.

The definition was included in the agenda of last week's IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), which saw governments raise a range of concerns about its implementation.

The International Chamber of Shipping claimed that these included issues relating to governance, the need to take account of the economic effect of the proposed mandatory R&D contribution on the States and the need to address the needs of the Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

Maritime Business World