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Deck Diaries 3 The Past, Present, and Future of Maritime Compliance
By : Capt Shailesh Bhambhani | September - 2025
Deck Diaries 3
The Past, Present, and Future of Maritime Compliance
Over the past 25 years, the marine industry has seen waves of transformative rules, reshaping how vessels are built, operated, and managed. From safety codes that changed life on board to environmental mandates redefining fuel choices and engine practices, compliance never turned static. Instead, it became a driver of sea change. Looking back at this journey helps us see how the domain has adapted, and more importantly, what lies on the horizon as the regulatory tide rises higher.
The 2000s: Structuring the Safety and Security Foundation
The turn of the millennium brought a decisive shift in maritime safety and security planning. The International Safety Management (ISM) Code – made mandatory in 1998 and reinforced through the early 2000s – established structured safety management practices that redefined shipboard culture. The International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code arrived in 2004, introducing mandatory security plans, access controls, and monitoring protocols. The measures were primarily shaped by growing concerns over accidents and post-9/11 realities.
For many operators, these new ISM and ISPS rules felt like a heavy lift in the beginning, but they did become the new normal. The shift was not about more paperwork and ticking compliance checkboxes – it started building a progressive culture of safety and accountability at sea. The decade set the stage for how regulations would evolve in the years ahead by moving from reactive measures to proactive, industry-wide standards.
The 2010s: The Rise of Green Shipping
If the 2000s were about deploying better safety and security measures, the 2010s placed the planet firmly into the spotlight. With mounting pressure from global climate commitments, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) introduced significant rules that every shipping company had to comply with.
The Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) adopted in July 2011 pushed for greater fuel efficiency in new vessels. By early 2013, it was mandatory for all new ships to be more fuel-efficient right from the design stage. Also, to protect marine ecosystems, the Ballast Water Management Convention required operators to control how they discharged ballast water.
A significant change introduced towards the end of the decade was the IMO sulphur cap that came into effect on 1st January 2020. It capped sulphur content in bunker fuels from 3.5% to 0.5%, compelling operators to choose cleaner fuels or install exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) to keep running on heavier oil.
For the industry, these mandates demanded significant investment, mechanical adjustments, and high transparency in reporting. It also signaled a turning point from where compliance extended beyond security to ensure that shipping operations were cleaner, greener, and ready for a future where resource conservation would be every vertical’s responsibility.
The 2020s: Data-Driven Decarbonization
Decarbonization continues to dominate the maritime agenda as it has for the past five years. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) and the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI), both introduced in 2023, directly tie ship performance to emission benchmarks. The EEXI energy efficiency rating and CII’s measure of operational carbon intensity influence both compliance and commercial competitiveness of fleets. Together, the scores disclose how cleanly they perform. Along with this, there are regional schemes like the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), which place a financial cost on carbon: the more a vessel pollutes, the more it pays.
The shift makes data quality and transparency non-negotiable for ship operators. They cannot rely on manual reporting, annual checks, or broad estimates anymore. Regulators, charterers, and financiers expect precise, high-frequency insights into each vessel’s performance.
Historically, shipping was about moving cargo efficiently. Today, it also has to demonstrate measurable progress towards decarbonization with data to support credibility and long-term operational resilience.
Future Pathways for Maritime Regulations
Compliance has already evolved from a periodic checkpoint to a seamless and data-driven responsibility. Investing in digitalization, advanced monitoring, and transparent reporting systems is a strategic necessity.
Where are we now headed? The next wave of maritime regulations is likely to rise above individual vessel performance to look at the entire supply chain footprint. Operators will need to be prepared for more comprehensive fuel assessments and ESG reporting.
Some of the key directives that will impact the future of industry include:
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Global CO₂ Levy and Offset System:
IMO will implement a global carbon levy and offset system for shipping, with formal adoption in October 2025 and entry into force in 2027. The system involves a tiered levy based on a ship's well-to-wake (WtW) carbon intensity. It starts at around $100/mt CO₂eq and is expected to rise to $380/mt CO₂eq for high-emission scenarios in 2028.
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Lifecycle Fuel Standard:
Likely to be enforced in March 2027, this new IMO framework will mandate the use of a Life Cycle Assessment methodology to calculate WtW emissions, encompassing fuel production and use. The aim is to achieve the 2050 net-zero goal by minimizing GHG emissions from ships in a holistic manner.
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“One Ship, One Code” for Alternative Fuels:
This principle clarifies that the IGF Code for low-flashpoint fuels does not apply to ships already covered by the IGC Code (for gas as cargo) when that cargo is used as fuel. However, while avoiding double regulation, the regulation raises the bar for fuel compliance. As an amendment to SOLAS and IGF Code, it shifts focus to designing future-ready fleets with alternative fuels and ensuring ship managers have the expertise to operate them safely.
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Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) Code:
IMO is developing the MASS Code to introduce new standards for safety, data integrity, and operational oversight in autonomous and semi-autonomous vessels. Its non-mandatory version will be adopted in May 2026, and the mandatory code will follow by June 2030. A critical aspect of the Code’s development is addressing the human element and ensuring that unmanned vessels can conduct Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, according to the DNV report on Maritime Safety Committee (MTV) 110.
Taken together, these developments point to a future where compliance is about proving credibility with granular, auditable, high-frequency data. Companies that embed these digital capabilities across their operations now will be better equipped to navigate the accelerating regulatory tide.
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