This document informs that WSC and the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) have launched the "charcoal sampling project" through which member carriers of WSC have been sourcing and shipping samples of charcoal (UN 1361) to BAM for laboratory testing. The intention of this project is to inform both carriers and regulators of any increased or decreased risks in the transport of charcoal against the standards that are set in the IMDG Code. The annex of this document provides an interim "progress report on testing the self-ignition behaviour of different charcoal samples" which has been issued by BAM.

This paper outlines how development of a ‘Green Balance Mechanism’ (GBM) can help deliver the environmental outcomes identified in IMO’s 2023 GHG Strategy while also providing a targeted economic and regulatory means to incentivise and enable the use of net-zero and near-zero fuels and technologies critical to the needed energy transition. The Green Balance Mechanism is designed to work as part of an integrated measure, a levy / GHG Fuel Intensity (GFI) approach, or as a hybrid measure to be considered in the development and discussion of mid-term measures.

MEPC 81 will consider development of an IMO GHG regulatory agreement consistent with the revised IMO GHG Strategy adopted at MEPC 80 in July 2023. This paper identifies four regulatory elements that WSC considers critical to formulating an IMO GHG instrument that can achieve the necessary environmental outcomes.

This document proposes measures that will reduce the environmental risks associated with the shipping of plastic pellets in packaged form.