The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), BIMCO, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO represented the global shipping industry throughout this week’s intensive discussions at the IMO, which continued the development of a comprehensive CO2 reduction strategy for the international shipping sector.
The international shipping industry associations say they are ‘broadly satisfied’ with the progress made at this week’s critical IMO meeting. As noted, they are encouraged that the ambitious proposals from the shipping industry regarding CO2 reduction objectives for the sector as a whole remain on the table, along with similar proposals from several IMO Member States.
The meeting also made progress on a list of possible CO2 reduction measures that might be taken forward by IMO in the short, medium and longer term, with a recognition that the vision of reaching zero CO2 emissions will only be achieved by supporting the development of alternative fuels and propulsion technologies, and ensuring their global availability.
“The industry associations remain confident that IMO Member States will finalise a comprehensive CO2 reduction strategy for international shipping, at the next meeting of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee in April 2018 that will fully match the ambition of the Paris Agreement on climate change. They will continue working with all IMO Member States and environmental NGOs to help achieve this shared objective.”
The industry organisations recently proposed some objectives to be adopted as part of the IMO Strategy:
- to maintain international shipping’s annual total CO2 emissions below 2008 levels;
- to reduce CO2 emissions per tonne-km, as an average across international shipping, by at least 50% by 2050, compared to 2008; and
- to reduce international shipping’s total annual CO2 emissions by an agreed percentage by 2050, compared to 2008, as a point on a continuing trajectory of CO2 emissions reduction.
