The IMO should stand firm on its regulatory approach to the January 2020 emissions deadline to avoid penalising shipowners that have made an early investment in scrubbers to comply with the standard.

That was the message this week from the Scorpio Group’s Ole Christian Schroder, who said any backtracking from the agency on issues related to wash water or air emissions could unfairly penalise owners that had made a compliance commitment in good faith.