Founding Principles for Cooperation & Success for Oil Spill Preparedness & Response

Thirty years ago, a diplomatic conference held in Paris recognised the importance of cooperation in helping countries better prepare for and respond to oil pollution incidents. The Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation Convention (OPRC 90) was thus conceived and shortly afterwards, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and IPIECA jointly developed a program to help nations implement the provisions of the Convention with practical assistance and technical cooperation as the central offering. This programme, which was launched in Cape Town and became known as the Global Initiative (GI), is still growing, developing and evolving some 24 year later. A key fundamental concept is the principle of regionality. Often countries in a specific region share similar geographical features and cultures, and face similar risks associated with the extraction and transportation of oil, which transcend the needs of national sovereignty and independence. The GI program focuses on these shared values of marine environmental protection and draws strength, not only from the collective will of national governments to protect the marine environment, but also on the needs of industry to work collaboratively with regulators and authorities to achieve a common goal for society. A regional approach also “raises the bar” in terms of national preparedness, ensuring a regional level playing field. It also underscores the need for regional collaboration noting that a catastrophic oil spill may exceed the capacity for any single country to respond. To that end, the GI program has further developed to be in a position to accommodate the growing range of needs of countries implementing OPRC 90, from offering support on core concepts (on topics such as implementing legislation, designating authority in charge etc.), to facilitating training on more technical topics (e.g. sensitivity mapping and how to implement a shoreline clean-up program). For a quarter of a century, the GI model has progressed into a series of regional programs which now encompass a third of all maritime coastal states. In this session we will hear more of these regional manifestations of GI, their challenges and opportunities which will provide us with a truly global perspective on what GI has achieved and has still to achieve in a world where the risks of oil spills continue to evolve. This paper will explore the concept of regionality and other key elements that continue to make the program relevant and adaptable to the oil spill risks that society faces today.