IMO 2020: Industry Stakeholders Brainstorm Disruptive Tech to Decarbonize Shipping

GIA met this week in the UK. Image Credit: IMO

Industry stakeholders this week have met to brainstorm solutions for reducing emissions from Shipping.

IMO-supported Global Industry Alliance to Support Low Carbon Shipping (GIA) said it met for the third meeting of the GIA Taskforce and an Ideas Generation Workshop from May 29-30, in Shoreham-by-Sea, United Kingdom.

"Which technologies will best support shipping's move to a low carbon future? How can first movers be incentivized to take-up emission reduction technologies? How can the effective implementation of 'Just-in-Time' operation help ships optimize speed, avoid idle times outside ports and cut emissions? How can financial barriers related to implementation of new technological measures be overcome? These and other questions were on the agenda," IMO said.

The meeting comes 19 months ahead of the IMO 2020 rule, which will see the global sulfur cap on marine fuel fall to 0.50% from January 1, 2020.

I also follows the industry's pledge in April to reduce Shipping's total annual GHG emissions at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008, while at the same time pursuing efforts towards phasing them out entirely.

To that end, the Ideas Generation Workshop was said to have included discussions on "disruptive technologies that can deliver the step-change required for shipping to decarbonize, as well as enabling technologies that have the potential to support shipping transition to zero emissions."

While some believe the shipping industry could be near carbon-free by 2035 using only currently known technologies, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) are among those who believe only radical and as yet unproven technologies will allow the industry to make good on its GHG reduction promise.

The GIA said it also considered short-term candidate measures for its reduction efforts, and how first movers could be incentivized to develop and take up new technologies.

The GIA is an innovative public-private partnership initiative of the IMO.