U.N. body meets to act on ship gases, cleaner seas

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) - Curbing greenhouse gas emissions from ships, slashing other air pollutants they generate and cleaning up the world's oceans, top the agenda at a meeting of the world's chief maritime body in London this week.

The U.N. International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting, seen as one of the most crucial in years, focuses on how best to reduce harmful ship fuel pollutants like sulphur dioxide emissions and nitrous oxides.

"Shipping should not be allowed to become a scapegoat for those who find it a 'soft target' singling it out from other modes of transport, when data show it as having greener credentials than them," said IMO Secretary-General Efthimous Mitropoulos, opening the meeting on Monday.

The week-long meeting also hopes to speed up policies to tackle growing carbon dioxide emissions emitted by ships, by strict international regulation or through industry-led initiatives.

Other hot topics include:

- Pushing governments to ratify a law stopping the spread of destructive invasive "alien" species through the discharge of ballast water across the world.

The law adopted in 2004 has only been ratified by 12 countries, representing just 3.64 percent of the world's shipping.

In a similar fashion to other IMO conventions, the law will only enter into force 12 months after no less than 30 nations, representing 35 percent of the world's tonnage ratify it.