The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has pledged to achieve net zero emissions in the maritime sector by 2050, agreeing to establish an emissions pricing mechanism and enforce a fuel standard.
The UN agency’s previous climate commitment is to reduce total annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 percent by 2050 relative to 2008 levels, which its “Study of greenhouse gases 2020” estimated at 794 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The report for 2020, the latest edition, said shipping accounted for 2.89 percent of human-caused emissions in 2018, when the sector released 1.076 billion metric tons of GHGs.
“IMO’s revised strategy includes an enhanced common ambition to achieve net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping by near 2050, a commitment to ensure the adoption of zero and near-zero GHG alternative fuels for 2030, as well as indicative checkpoints for 2030 and 2040,” the 170-member IMO said in a press release on Friday. Its Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) adopted the revisions at the committee’s 80th session, held in London from Monday to Friday.
IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim told member countries that adopting more ambitious targets is, however, “not the end goal” but “a starting point for the work that has been to further intensify over the years and decades ahead.”
“However, with the revised strategy you have now agreed, we have a clear direction, a common vision and ambitious goals that will guide us to deliver what the world expects of us,” he was quoted as saying in the media statement.
By 2030, global warming emissions from the shipping sector should be at least 20 percent below 2008 levels, with a target of 30 percent, the statement said. The minimum target for member governments should increase to 70% by 2040, aiming for 80%.
Towards the targets, the IMO has committed to review efficiency design benchmarks for ships, increase the share of low-emission fuels in the shipping sector to at least five percent by 2030 and enforce a scheme to charge companies for their emissions.
“The MEPC adopted Guidelines on the Life Cycle GHG Intensity of Marine Fuels (LCA Guidelines) for consideration and adoption. The LCA Guidelines allow for a Well-to-Wake calculation, including Well-to-Wake emission factors to-Tank and Tank-to-Wake, of the total GHG emissions related to the production and use of marine fuels,” he said.
The MEPC also adopted interim guidelines on the use of biofuels.
Meanwhile, the pricing mechanism “will be assessed against specific criteria to be considered” in an impact assessment.
The IMO has also pledged funding and technological assistance to the poorest countries, which “have special needs in terms of capacity building and technical cooperation”.
“Above all, it is particularly significant to have the unanimous support of all member states. In this regard, I believe we must pay more attention to supporting developing countries, particularly SIDS. [small island developing states] and LDCs [least developed countries]so that no one is left behind,” Lim said.
The revised strategy is based on providing shippers with “a necessary incentive while contributing to a level playing field and a fair and equitable transition,” the IMO said.
The IMO aims to finalize the measures in its revised strategy when the MEPC meets for its 81st session in spring 2024, when it is due to present the interim report on the impact assessment of the measures mid term
“The strategy states that the impacts on states of a measure/combination of measures should be assessed and considered as appropriate prior to the adoption of the measure in accordance with the revised procedure for assessing impacts on the states of the candidate measures. Special attention should be paid to the needs of developing countries, especially SIDS and LDCs,” the organization said.
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