GI WACAF participated in the 2021 Virtual International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) – 12 May 2021

IOSC is part of a triennial series of events including Interspill in Europe and Spillcon in Asia. With each of them being attended by 1000 participants or more, the rotating conferences provide a platform for the sharing of oil spill preparedness and response expertise worldwide.

This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, IOSC was fully virtually held from May 10 to 14, allowing for participants to access relevant information as well as an extensive network of people and companies from the oil spill preparedness and response sector. As co-author of the following papers: (1) Domestication of international regulation as a fundamental step to developing preparedness and response; and (2) Measuring progress in oil spill preparedness, the GI WACAF team participated in IOSC 2021 during the session on “Response Community 10 year Progress Report”. This session included other speakers from OSPRI, GI SEA, POLARIS Applied Sciences, IPIECA and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Emilie Canova, GI WACAF Project Manager, presented the challenges of measuring progress in oil spill preparedness that have emerged over time, leading to the development of different tools and systems to monitor long-term developments. In her presentation, she first reviewed the metrics and tools used to assess the key elements of preparedness, focusing on regions where IMO - Industry Global Initiative has been active since 1996. Then she explained why the measures should apply both for evaluation and decision-making and explained why it is key to build more comprehensive and sustainable national preparedness systems. Finally, she discussed the need for an enhanced methodology to measure progress in preparedness, and its consistency with the risk exposure.