As a considered response to the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world's national shipowner associations – represented by their global trade association, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) – have pledged their support for the development of a timeline for the further reduction of the shipping sector's Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.
About ninety per cent of global trade is moved by cargo ships, collectively responsible for about 2.2 per cent of the world's total GHG emissions (similar to that emitted by international aviation). Both the shipping and aviation industry have been left out of the Paris Agreement. It is expected that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) may reach agreement this week on a CO2 reduction plan for the aviation sector.
This triggered the ICS to propose that the details of a CO2 reduction commitment should be developed on behalf of the shipping sector, as soon as possible, by the industry's global regulator, the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The goal is to build on the substantial CO2 reductions already achieved and the mandatory IMO CO2 reduction regime which is already in force worldwide.
Fifty Per Cent CO2 Reduction by 2050
ICS Chairman, Esben Poulsson: 'The binding IMO rules, in force worldwide since 2013, will mean that future ships will be even more efficient and most ships built after 2025 will be at least thirty per cent more efficient than those delivered in the 2000s. […] With bigger ships, better engines, cleaner fuels and operational efficiency measures such as satellite-assisted speed management, we are confident of reducing CO2 emissions per tonne-kilometre by fifty per cent by 2050.'
IMO to Respond to Increasing Maritime Trade
Despite their current reliance on fossil fuels, individual ships are becoming far more efficient. But the industry also wants IMO to respond to the challenge of addressing the total CO2 emissions from the sector if demand for maritime trade continues to increase due to population growth and economic development.
The first step will be a global CO2 data collection system for ships, which IMO member states will officially establish this October. This system should then become fully operational by 2018.
Sector Needs to Take Responsibility
But ICS asserts that, in the same way that governments under the Paris Agreement have set out Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) for reducing the total GHG emissions by their national economies, IMO needs to do something similar on behalf of the international shipping industry.
Poulsson: 'This will help IMO member states to demonstrate they are serious about building on the real progress already made by the shipping industry to reduce CO2. Our hope is that this can be done in a way that will also be acceptable to developing nations whose support will be vital if IMO is to continue making progress on a global basis.'
The Paris Agreement on climate change makes no explicit reference to international transport. But the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol, which is still in force, makes clear that both the shipping and aviation sectors have a responsibility to reduce their GHG emissions.
