T&E Bemoans Shipping Industry's Lack of Ambition on Proposed GHG Reduction Efforts

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday April 2, 2018

With the 72nd meeting of IMO's Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC72) set to take place later this month, environmental group Transport & Environment (T&E) has accused the shipping industry of a lack of ambition over proposed efforts to reduce the sector's GHG emissions.

IMO are expected to adopt an initial strategy on the reduction of GHG emissions from the Shipping industry as part of MEPC72, and T&E's Faig Abbasov said it was "the last chance for the member states of the IMO and the shipping sector to respond to the Paris agreement's goal of global warming not exceeding 1.5ºC."

While some EU Member States are calling for a plan that would aim for a 70 to 100% reduction in emissions before 2050, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) last week backed proposals by made by China and Japan that would see an initial objective of cutting the sector's total CO2 emissions by half.

Abbasov said such a move would "sink the entire Paris agreement" and instead called for a backing of proposals seeking full decarbonisation by 2050.

ICS believes the only way Shipping can cuts its emissions by 100% is with the development of zero CO2 bunker fuels, something it does not expect to happen until the latter half of this century.

Seemingly at odds with this is a report released last week by intergovernmental organisation International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD that suggests the shipping industry could be near carbon-free by 2035.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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