The Clean Shipping Alliance (CSA) 2020 has contracted Maritime AMC (MAMCL), a UK-based association management company, to provide secretariat services, and appointed Ian Adams as its Executive Director.

The membership body, whose members include more than 30 shipowning companies, was established last year to provide scientific-based information and research on the emissions abatement performance and environmental benefits of closed- and open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems.

Executive Director Ian Adams, the former Chief Executive of the International Bunker Industry Association, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed as the management and administrative services company for this important and influential membership body.

“Good governance and secretariat services are essential to the success and effectiveness of any growing membership body. As such, we will work with CSA 2020’s officers to widely promote its mission and ensure that all industry stakeholders – Flag States, Non-Governmental Organisations, Administrations and regulators – have a more balanced, informed view of the solutions available for complying with the introduction of the IMO Global Sulphur Cap in January 2020.”

Commenting on recent media reports concerning open-loop scrubbers, Adams said: “There has been a lot of loose speculation about the environmental benefits of these systems; conjecture that obscures the fact that exhaust gas cleaning systems have a very  positive net environmental impact on the maritime environment.

“We are deeply concerned that decisions are being made without the benefit of existing academic studies and research or any knowledge of the performance of these systems,” he said.

“Exhaust gas cleaning systems can have a profoundly positive impact on the port and ocean environment, in terms of improving shipping’s environmental footprint and reducing the health impact from airborne sources. After all, this is what the 2020 regulation aims to do. I am sure the early installers of scrubber technologies will at some point be considered visionary,” Adams added.

CSA 2020 will hold its first General Assembly in February where its leadership team and officers will be formally elected. The Assembly will take place alongside the first CSA 2020 Conference on Marine Emissions Abatement.