The hefty carbon footprint of global shipping networks that crisscross our oceans and keep the world’s economy afloat will come under scrutiny next week, as countries wrestle over measures to slash planet-heating pollution.
Emission Reduction Targets
Nations are under pressure to agree ambitious emission reduction targets and consider a tax on pollution by the sector at a key meeting of the International Maritime Organization. Currently shipping belches out roughly the same level of greenhouse gasses as aviation. The IMO Marine Environment Protection Commission (MEPC) meeting, held in London from Monday to Friday, is likely to pit climate-vulnerable nations — particularly Pacific islands — and some richer countries against big exporters such as China. “The climate crisis is an existential threat to Pacific small island developing states, and many other countries, but can be seen as less urgent by countries with superior resources,” Michael Prehn, the IMO delegate for the Solomon Islands, told AFP.
Shipping, which is responsible for around two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, is judged to be off course in the fight against climate change. Efforts to decarbonise so far center around a 2018 IMO decision that instructed shipping firms to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050, from 2008 levels.
Net Zero Target
Nations in support of more ambitious cuts want the IMO to align its goals with the Paris Agreement’s global warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Some 45 countries — including the European Union, the United States, Britain, Fiji, the Marshall Islands and Norway — support a net zero target for the sector by 2050. But emerging market exporters, particularly Brazil and China, have strongly resisted a change, according to observers at talks that started in late June ahead of the decision-making MEPC meeting.
A briefing note circulated by China, seen by AFP, framed the proposals as “unrealistic” and an effort by developed countries to boost their economic competitiveness by increasing shipping costs. Ships transport 90 percent of the world’s goods, and the sector emits around a billion tonnes of greenhouse gasses every year, the equivalent of Germany or Japan. A source following the preliminary IMO negotiations said support had swelled to 70 countries but that major exporters including Brazil, China and Australia were against it. Brazil has argued it would harm food security and penalize developing countries.
There is also disagreement about where any revenues would be spent. There are debates over whether it should be used solely to decarbonise the sector, or whether some of the money should go to help countries cope with climate impacts. The sums could be significant.
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Source: Barrons
