Clean Shipping Coalition statement to the 70th session of the IMO’s Marine Environment protection Committee in London on 28th October 2016:

“Mr Chairman, when the Clean Shipping Coalition spoke on this issue earlier in the week we expressed our concern that some of the submissions made to this meeting under agenda item 7 [greenhouse gas emissions from ship] lacked ambition and an appropriate sense of urgency. In the outcome of the working group our worst fears have been realised. This can in no-way be seen as a proper response to the challenge laid down by Paris.

We note that a discussion of “levels of ambition” will be part of the lengthy process, but what is urgently needed is a clear indication of the scale of the emissions reductions that are necessary to keep warming below dangerous levels. This is needed to guide further work on measures and to send a crystal clear signal to industry that we are serious about decarbonisation of the sector and that they have to start including this reality in the decisions they are making now.

Why, when a majority of submissions, including from industry, supported setting some kind of target or objective is this missing from the outcome of the working group? It is totally unacceptable that an IMO response to Paris should lack this key element and indeed should then go on to suggest that it is acceptable to wait until 2023 before finally agreeing measures. Keeping warming to 1.5 degrees means net zero carbon emissions around 2030, and you are proposing to wait until 2023 to agree a measure based on no target or objective.

Mr Chairman, it is a source of deep regret that a process that had so much promise on Monday should have stumbled so seriously before the week was out. If this Committee is to send a clear signal to the wider world that it is serious about reducing shipping’s climate impact it needs to revisit this roadmap, and in particular it needs to agree a target by 2018”.