ICS to Reassert Shipping Industry Commitment to Green Growth at UN Conference

ICS will highlight the global shipping industry's committent to the UN SDG for the protection of the ocean.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) today announced that it is set to reassert the global shipping industry's committent to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for the protection of the ocean at this week's UN Ocean Conference in New York.

ICS says it will present some ambitious "aspirational objectives" for CO2 reduction that the shipping industry would like to see the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopt on the industry's behalf.

"Shipping, because of its great size, is currently responsible for about 2.2 percent of annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions. According to IMO, shipping has reduced its total CO2 emissions by more than 13 percent between 2008 and 2012, despite increased maritime trade, but there is a perception that shipping, whose emissions cannot be attributed to individual nations, may have somehow 'escaped' the Paris Agreement," said ICS Director of Policy, Simon Bennett.

In addition to an existing industry commitment to a 50 percent cut in CO2 emissions per tonne of cargo carried one kilometre by 2050 against 2008 levels, ICS says the industry would like to see IMO set an objective for keeping total CO2 emissions from the shipping sector below 2008 levels, as well as determine a goal for cutting annual total CO2 emissions from the sector by 2050.

ICS notes that the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw the country from the Paris Agreement will impact on the shipping industry's "strong commitment" to reducing its CO2 emissions.

In addition to reducing CO2, ICS says the industry is committed to the 2020 implementation of a global 0.50 percent cap on sulfur in marine fuels, which ICS notes is expected to come with a collective cost of about $100 billion per year.    

ICS stresses that an understanding of the importance of economic factors in achieving sustainable development is especially important.

"The shipping industry is committed to the delivery of further environmental improvements in the interests of sustainable development.  But sustainable development requires a global shipping industry that is economically sustainable too," said Bennett.

As Ship & Bunker reported last month, ICS has said that the shipping industry must eventually stop using fossil fuel bunkers, but noted that it will take "several decades" before this can be achieved.