LISW23: IMO's Kitack Lim Sees GHG Strategy Deal as Greatest Achievement

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday September 13, 2023

Outgoing IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim sees this year's revision of the global GHG strategy for the shipping industry as one of the greatest achievements during his term at the helm of the UN body.

Lim was speaking at the opening of the London International Shipping Week headline conference at the IMO headquarters in the UK capital on Wednesday.

The event was one of the last high-profile public events Lim will attend before his term as secretary general finishes at the end of this year. Lim has served in the role since January 2016, and will be replaced at the start of 2024 by Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco.

"I would like to mention ... the adoption of the 2023 GHG strategy," Lim said at the conference.

"There had been a huge divide, a difference of perspectives and views on GHG policy among developed and developing countries.

"We had also suffered with COVID for two or three years previously.

"But despite that tough environment, this decision -- the adoption of the 2023 strategy -- was adopted with unanimous support among member states.

"That was, I believe, the UN system at its best, a most successful outcome with a decision with unanimous support.

"This showcases certainty for the future for our industry, and it's what I'd like to mention as our most important achievement."

The revised IMO strategy, set in July, gave the shipping industry a target of reaching net-zero GHG emissions by or around 2050.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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