"Dodgy" Climate Data No Reason to Slow Efforts to Reduce Ship Emissions: T&E

Faig Abbasov of T&E says shipping should implement emission reduction measures without delay. Image Credit: T&E

Reports that the COP21 global climate agreement is plagued by "dodgy" data is no reason for Shipping to slow its emissions reduction efforts, Faig Abbasov, shipping policy officer at Transport & Environment (T&E) has told Ship & Bunker.

A report last month by the BBC highlighted what it said were huge disparities between recorded and reported emissions levels, with emissions from India and China in particular so uncertain that experts say the accuracy of their records are plus or minus 100%.

All signatories to the Paris climate deal must submit emissions data, with improvements to their baseline emissions levels key to COP21's overall goal of keeping the global temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius.

"Without good data as a basis, Paris essentially collapses. It just becomes a talkfest without much progress," BBC quoted Prof Glen Peters, Centre for International Climate Research, Oslo, as saying.

While Shipping was not included in the Paris Agreement, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is under pressure to deliver on its implied obligations under the global deal and Abbasov says the recent question marks over the wider Paris deal should not impact these efforts.

"The bottom line is that there will always be a certain level of uncertainty in emissions data, not least because industry itself is against robust reporting, verification and enforcement mechanisms. Hence, it is only self-serving to say that industry should stop 'efforts' to reduce emissions until perfect data is available," Abbasov told Ship & Bunker.

"On the other hand, with the logic of the BBC article, efforts to reduce emissions will need to be upped and not the opposite - because some emissions are not accounted for."

Abbasov notes uncertainty in the bottom-up emissions data in the IMO's third greenhouse gas study is around 10%, and some in the industry say that more accurate data resulting from the IMO Data Collection System (DCS) should be assessed before emission reduction measures are put in place.

"But DCS will not be perfect either, as some estimates put uncertainty with DCS data at around 5%, which is not a massive difference from the 3rd GHG study," he said.

"But if the concern is that bottom up data in the 3rd overestimates the problem, then an emissions target plus measures can be agreed based on top-down data, which clearly underestimates the problem. As more data becomes available the ambition can then be ratcheted up.

"At the end of the day, the later the start date of global measures, the steeper the trajectory of the efforts will have to be."

Last month, the idea it was inevitable that Shipping must reduce its emissions was taken a step further when ship efficiency expert Nikos Petrakakos told Ship & Bunker the industry must act even if the environmental benefits are zero.