SSI Urges IMO to Show Leadership on Shipping Emissions at MEPC 70

SSI has called on IMO to take action to align shipping with the COP 21 agreement.

In the lead up to the 70th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 70) this month, the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) Thursday called on member states of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to take action to align shipping industry regulations with the climate agreement reached at COP 21 in Paris last year.

SSI says it has set out the required immediate actions for creating a framework to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from shipping in line with the Paris agreement's 2 degree goal, including the adoption of a detailed IMO roadmap in order to define shipping's "fair share" of global emission reductions, and the subsequent establishment of reduction targets.

"Defining shipping's 'fair share' of CO2 reductions must be balanced between the required ambition to deliver on the Paris Agreement, and the need to be equitable and affordable for the industry, as well as enforceable on a global basis to ensure change," explained SSI.

SSI says IMO's reduction targets, titled "Intended IMO Determined Contributions," should be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) once they are defined.

Further, SSI notes that, in order to prevent the delay of the "urgent action that is required," the baseline for setting such emissions reduction targets should be established using data from IMO's third GHG study (2014), rather than being linked to ongoing data collection and analysis related to the global Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) scheme.

"Decarbonisation of the global economy is under way. We are now at a crossroads for the shipping industry where it must choose to embark on an accelerated innovation pathway to ensure its long term relevance as the backbone of global commerce," said Ian Petty, General Manager of SSI.

SSI's call for action is the latest among a series of recent calls for action at MEPC 70, with the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) urging IMO to decide on next steps to address shipping at the meeting, and NGOs Seas at Risk and Transport & Environment (T&E) on Tuesday condemning the possible delay of a global 0.5 percent sulfur cap on marine fuel from the proposed 2020 date as "unacceptable and unjustifiable."

On Monday, Ship & Bunker reported that Lars Robert Pedersen, Deputy Secretary General at BIMCO, had said that IMO's fuel availability study is "flawed" and not sufficient to determine adequate availability of low sulfur fuel for a decision on a 0.50 percent global sulfur cap implemention date at MEPC 70.