ALL proposed environmental regulations on ships should be subjected to proper cost benefit analysis before adoption by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), according to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

"All proposals for any future IMO environmental regulation will be shown to meet existing IMO criteria for compelling need and be subjected to a full and proper cost benefit analysis, in a similar manner to proposals relating to the improvement of maritime safety," said ICS Secretary General Peter Hinchliffe.

The economic sustainability of shipping is vital too and the ICS suggested that maritime policy makers should give equal priority to each of the three pillars of sustainable development including the economic, as well as the environmental and social.

"Unless the industry is commercially viable, it will not be able to deliver the investments in environmental and social improvements that are sought by regulators on behalf of society at large," Mr Hinchliffe said.

ICS used IMO's World Maritime Day on September 26 to explain its views in a brochure for maritime policy makers, which sets out how the shipping industry supported the environment at last year's UN sustainable development summit.

ICS argued that shipping is the only major industry with a binding global agreement in place to reduce its CO2 emissions. Shipping, it said, is the only industry to have a mandatory global framework in place for its employees through the ILO Maritime Labour Convention, the London's Tanker Operator reported.