International Maritime Organization adopts revised greenhouse gas strategy

At the recent 80^th Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80) climate summit in London, UK, the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted a revised strategy to decarbonize global shipping operations.

The decision was made to determine whether the maritime industry can stick to its target of meeting the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C while also securing a fair and equitable transition for the world’s most vulnerable countries.

Levels of ambition directing the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy are:

• Carbon intensity of ships to decline through further improvement of the energy efficiency of new ships and to be reviewed to strengthen the energy efficiency design requirements for ships;
• Carbon intensity of international shipping to decline and to reduce CO₂ emissions per transport work, as an average across international shipping, by at least 40% by 2030, compared with 2008;
• Uptake of zero or near-zero GHG emission technologies, fuels and/or energy sources to represent at least 5%, striving for 10%, of the energy used by international shipping by 2030;
• GHG emissions from international shipping as soon as possible and to reach net-zero GHG emissions by or around 2050, taking into account different national circumstances, while pursuing efforts toward phasing them out as called for in the vision consistent with the long-term temperature goal set out in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement.

Countries that took part at the summit also agreed on indicative checkpoints of reducing emissions by at least 20% (striving for 30%) by 2030, and at least 70% (striving for 80%) by 2040, reaching net zero by or around 2050, qualified by whether ‘national circumstances allow’.

“The adoption of the 2023 IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy is a monumental development for IMO and opens a new chapter toward maritime decarbonization,” said Kitack Lim, secretary general of IMO. “At the same time, it is not the end goal; it is in many ways a starting point for the work that needs to intensify even more over the years and decades ahead of us. However, with the Revised Strategy that you have now agreed on, we have a clear direction, a common vision and ambitious targets to guide us to deliver what the world expects from us.”

Following the decision, a multitude of civil society groups expressed concerns about the IMO’s ‘failure to firmly align global shipping with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature-warming limit’.

To be hailed a success, many believe that the revised GHG Strategy needed to include 1.5-aligned science-based emission targets for 2030 and 2040, in addition to an agreement to phase out all GHG emissions by no later than 2050.

“This week had everything to be a historical moment,” explained Ana Laranjeira, shipping manager at Opportunity Green. “The last chance for the IMO to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal of 1.5°C, vital to secure a just and equitable transition for the world’s most vulnerable nations, and protect our global biodiversity, such as the world’s coral reefs, which will simply cease to exist in a world above this temperature threshold. This agreement does not get us anywhere near 1.5°C.”

Estimates carried out by the World Bank show that between US$1tn and 3.7tn could be raised by charging for shipping emissions by 2050. The IMO’s revised strategy, however, states that the earliest these measures could be used is 2027 – leaving it too late for the sector to meet the 1.5°C target.

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