IMO’s Marine Environmental Regulatory Governance and China’s Role: An Empirical Study of China’s Submissions

Abstract

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) plays a significant role in global marine environmental governance, providing a forum of regulatory oversight for member states. Member states are the main actors of the IMO and exert considerable influence on the process of lawmaking. Among these member states, China is unique due to its multiple identities. There are various factors influencing interests behind China’s multiple identities, which fully engage the country in various shipping and maritime trade activities. This article examines China’s role in the IMO marine environmental regulatory governance. It identifies the impact of China on global ocean governance and indicates the development and reforms in the global governance system. China enacted the China Ocean Agenda 21 for its strategy of ocean development. Thus, China is the object of study in this examination of empirical research that collects submissions from 2001 to 2020 related to marine environmental governance. The findings reveal that the extent to which China participates in such governance has considerably increased, and although the contribution of China’s submissions is still in development, its role in the IMO is no longer merely that of a follower, and the efforts of the country have had a positive influence on the IMO’s marine environmental regulatory governance, including its legal instruments.

Shifting to Sustainable Shipping: Actors and Power Shifts in Shipping Emissions in the IMO

“…As the issues increased in salience and relevance to the actors, they increased their participation. The increasing role of China has also been noted by other research, which cited changing domestic politics and strategies of China as a reason for their increased role [34]. The size of China's shipping fleet has increased over the years, and thus, this has increased their interest and their influence.…”

“…These works have not focused on one issue area but combined issues and/or different committees. Moreover, a cumulative approach has been taken with the data being compiled over a few decades and presented as sum totals; no one has looked at the issue of change, save for a single member state study on the role of China [34]. If the research diverges on whether there is shifting authority, finding empirical evidence of change over time on all the actors would provide valuable insight.…”

The use of alternative fuels for maritime decarbonization: Special marine environmental risks and solutions from an international law perspective

“…Responsibility and liability for fulfilling international obligations regarding marine pollution and for ensuring the availability of legal recourse and prompt and adequate compensation for causing marine environmental damage are imposed on states (UNCLOS, 1982, Article 235). In addition, alternative-fuel-powered ships are subject to a series of international maritime conventions regulating pollution from ships adopted under the auspices of the IMO (Bai and Li, 2021). For example, the 1973 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL, 1973) aims to prevent marine pollution from both the routine operation of ships and their accidental discharge of harmful substances.…”

Evaluation of Control Strategy on Operation Range Expansion of High-Pressure Ammonia Direct Injection Marine Dual-Fuel Engine

“…IMO (International Maritime Organization) has been pursuing short-term measures focused on improving energy efficiency as a measure to substantially reduce greenhouse gases and is preparing to introduce mid-to long-term measures, including market-based measures, from 2021. 1 Among short-term measures, technical measures are divided into the energy efficiency design index (EEDI) and the energy efficiency existing ship index (EEXI). Carbon intensity indicator (CII), an operational measure, assigns ship operation efficiency grades (A-E) depending on the level of achievement of the reduction goal, and mid-to-long-term measures are intended to reduce greenhouse gases more than short-term measures.…”