In fact, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), as well as the Spanish Shipowners’ Association (ANAVE) organized an event dedicated to the decarbonization of shipping, during COP 25, the UN Climate Change Conference, in Madrid.
Namely, the ICS Deputy Secretary General, Simon Bennett said that “the UN International Maritime Organization has successfully enhanced the sector’s impressive environmental performance through a comprehensive framework of regulations which enjoy robust enforcement worldwide and this includes greenhouse gas reduction.”
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It was is added that there may already be mandatory CO2 reduction regulations implemented in a global level that require new ships to be at least 30% more carbon-efficient by 2025- with a 50% improvement by large containerships by 2022- in order to be in line with the ambitious CO2 reduction targets which IMO Member States agreed last year.
What is more, the IMO will adopt a new package of regulations in 2020 with a focus on operational fuel efficiency and speed optimization. “This should ensure further CO2 reductions by 2023 and that the sector is on track to exceed the IMO target of a 40% efficiency improvement across the entire world fleet by 2030,” the Deputy Secretary General said, highlighted that
The industry’s greatest priority is to help the IMO make rapid progress with implementing its very ambitious 2050 target, cutting the sector’s total CO2 emissions, regardless of trade growth, by at least 50%, with full decarbonization soon after.
It is further proposed that this can be done through accelerating R&D of zero-carbon technologies and propulsion systems that can be applied on trans-oceanic ships.
On their part, Martin Dorsman, ECSA Secretary-General commented that
the climate emergency is a global crisis; it needs a global strategy.
According to the Secretary-General, the EU now needs to play a proactive and positive role in the IMO discussions supporting the development and adoption of ambitious international regulations to be applied globally soon enough.
What was outlined was that there is an urgent need for new technologies and alternative fuels; the EU can support R&D by making EU funds suitable for use by the shipping industry and the broader maritime cluster. “Europe must support pilot projects and the deployment of bunkering infrastructure in EU ports for new fuels,” was said.
During COP 25, the IMO presented its latest work concerning reducing GHG emissions, referring to its initial strategy and commitment on extinguishing shipping GHG emissions, as a matter of urgency, given the environmental disruption of climate change.
