ICS asks IMO to set CO2 reduction goals for shipping sector

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The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) will urge the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to “adopt some dramatic CO2 reduction objectives—on behalf of the international shipping sector as a whole—in order to match the ambition of the Paris Agreement on climate change.”

ICS in a release said it will propose that IMO adopt three “aspirational objectives” for cutting down on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

These are to maintain international shipping’s annual total CO2 emissions below 2008 levels; to reduce CO2 emissions per tonne-kilometer, 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.

The proposal will be submitted to IMO by ICS in collaboration with other shipping organizations. ICS is the principal global trade association for shipowners. Its membership includes national shipowners’ associations from 37 nations covering all sectors and trades and over 80% of the world merchant fleet.

Said ICS chairman Esben Poulsson: “It is very important that IMO sends a clear and unambiguous signal to the global community that shipping’s regulators have agreed [to] some ambitious objectives, with numbers and dates, for reducing the sector’s CO2 emissions, in the same way that land-based activity is now covered by government commitments under the Paris Agreement.”

International shipping, as well as international aviation, is not covered by the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) committed by governments as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement adopted in 2015.  Under the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol, the mandate for addressing CO2 from shipping remains with IMO until 2020.

ICS said it wants IMO to remain in control of additional measures to address CO2 reduction by ships and to develop a global solution, rather than risk the danger of market-distorting measures at national or regional level.

“Shipping has a very good story to tell about reducing CO2 but this is difficult to convey so long as there is no clear signal from IMO as to what our collective CO2 reduction objectives should be,” said Poulsson.

ICS will suggest that IMO adopt these objectives as part of the initial IMO CO2 reduction strategy to be agreed in 2018, following the adoption of an IMO roadmap at the request of the industry in 2016.

Acknowledging concerns of developing nations about the possible impacts of CO2 reduction on trade and sustainable development, ICS added that any objectives adopted by IMO must not imply any commitment to place a binding cap on the sector’s total CO2 emissions or on the CO2 emissions of individual ships.

“Dramatic CO2 reductions alongside increasing trade can only be achieved with the development of alternative fossil-free fuels—something which needs to be identified by the IMO strategy,” Poulsson emphasized.

He added, “The long term future of the industry, like the rest of the world economy, must eventually be fossil fuel free. The trajectory for getting there, not least the development of alternative fuels, could well take us several decades. But this will only be achieved if the industry itself pushes for the adoption by IMO of some suitability ambitious objectives so that all concerned are under no illusion about the scale of the task ahead.”

According to the 2014 IMO GHG study, international shipping emitted 921 million tonnes of CO2 in 2008. After measures were taken, this figure declined by 13% to less than 800 million tonnes of CO2 in 2012, or 2.2% of the world’s total CO2 emissions.

But if no additional CO2 reduction measures are initiated, total CO2 from international shipping is currently projected by IMO to increase above 2008 levels due to additional demand for maritime transport.

Photo by Farid mernissi