A report by the NGO Opportunity Green draws on analysis of international law to detail the UK’s obligation to act on greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the international maritime sector, outside the IMO framework.
Namely, the report says that emissions from the UK’s international shipping activities make up more than half of the UK’s total maritime emissions. “However, the UK is proposing only to regulate emissions from the domestic fleet, stating in the recent Course to Zero consultation that responsibility for regulating international emissions lies with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).”
This is not the case. The UK is under a legal obligation to keep emissions to the temperature limits agreed in the Paris Agreement, and as the UK Climate Change Committee pointed out, this cannot be done without tackling international shipping. Waiting for the IMO to act therefore inevitably violates the UK’s obligations under the Paris Agreement
Key findings
The UK is considering the regulation of emissions from domestic shipping but has not proposed any regulation of international shipping. The UK has stated emphatically this is because international shipping is regulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
However, the UK is under a legal obligation to keep emissions to the temperature limits agreed in the Paris Agreement and as the UK Climate Change Committee pointed out, this cannot be done without tackling international shipping.
This report draws on analysis of international law to detail the UK’s obligation to act on greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the international maritime sector, outside the IMO framework. It finds that, provided a number of important legal and enforcement considerations are respected and built into the design of any policy measure, there are numerous avenues through which the UK could take national action.
Therefore, if the UK regulation of international shipping emissions is enacted in accordance with the principles of non-discrimination, good faith and non-abuse of right, and designed in ways that minimise impact on the right of innocent passage and freedom of high seas and respects the sovereignty of other countries, the measure will be in accordance with international law.
A clear example of this is the UK’s monitoring, reporting and verification regulation which requires ships to report on the emissions from their entire journey to a UK port which has been in place without legal challenge for a number of years
says the report, concluding that “if the IMO enacts regulations in line with the Paris Agreement, the UK would be relieved of its obligation as the required result would have been achieved. But the UK cannot simply wait for ambitious IMO regulation to appear. Indeed, the UK has not yet even acknowledged its responsibility, nor set out how the UK sees the IMO acting to achieve the required reduction in emissions from international shipping.”
EXPLORE MORE AT UK legal obligations on international shipping
