IMO announced that the foundation phase of the IMO CARES project that aims to bring stakeholders together from the global north and global south to tackle maritime emissions is moving towards its final stages, following a series of technical workshops across the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific.
In particular, the IMO Coordinated Actions to Reduce Emissions from Shipping (IMO CARES) will support coordination to accelerate demonstration of green technologies and their deployment globally in a manner that facilitates blue economic growth in developing regions.
The preparatory phase of IMO CARES is funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and undertakes all the preparatory activities to develop and design a sustainable global CARES programme, which is expected to be a long-term initiative.
As part of the foundation phase, workshops were organized between June and August in collaboration with Maritime Technology Cooperation Centers for Caribbean, Africa and Pacific, part of a global network of MTCCs.
Key goals of the IMO CARES Project
- Design a long-term technology cooperation and capacity building programme focusing on the needs of developing countries, SIDS and LDCs, that will support the IMO GHG Strategy;
- Engage with key stakeholders to support the long-term CARES programme;
- Identify demonstration projects dealing with new technologies and alternative fuels that can be implemented through MTCCs and other key parts of the global partnership mechanism, with the help of International Financial Institutions and the private sector;
- Define capacity building activities that are needed to accelerate the uptake of appropriate technologies and alternative fuels by the industry, especially in developing countries and, particularly, in SIDS and LDCs.
Gathering feedback from stakeholders in the respective regions was a major step towards the establishment of a multi-stakeholder coalition with a view to the launch of the full IMO CARES Programme in 2023.
Building on from the success of the workshops, meetings were undertaken with R&D Centres, International financial institutions, UN agencies and others to identify their needs and how stakeholders might collaborate under an IMO CARES framework.
Future advancements in maritime technical cooperation depend upon continued close collaboration between member states, the IMO, maritime organisations as well as financial institutions,
said Mr. Essam Al Ammari, Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization for Saudi Arabia.
