IACS Highlights Progress on Digitalization and Decarbonization

The IACS Council met in Beijing last week (C91) to assess and advance the association’s progress on the safe decarbonization and digital transitions.

C91 welcomed the Safe Digital Transformation Panel’s work undertaken to clarify IACS’ role in digitalization, cyber systems and marine autonomous surface ships, and in sharing these important conceptualizations with IMO at its FAL49 meeting earlier this year in support of its comprehensive digitalization strategy.

IACS Council also highlighted the development of IACS Resolutions on a diverse range of digital issues including cybersecurity controls for existing ships, vessel asset inventory for computer-based systems, classification of complex systems which utilize computer-based systems, a protocol on format definition and exchange of 3D model, risk assessment for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) and communications and remote connectivity for MASS.

Three years after the launch of its Safe Decarbonisation Panel, the IACS Council welcomed the rapid progress made in developing technical guidance across a range of key technologies that support the introduction of new fuels and technologies on both new builds and the existing fleet.

In line with IACS’s technology-neutral approach, IACS instruments now cover ammonia, methanol, hydrogen, batteries and carbon capture, while also working with flag States on matters such