International NGOs led by the Clean Arctic Alliance have sent an urgent letter to International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General, Mr Kitak Lim, urging him to address the international shipping’s climate impact. The letter, which was also sent to European Council President Michel, President of the European Commission von der Leyen and European Commission Executive Vice President Timmermans, comes ahead of Friday's crucial decision on IMO measures on black carbon emissions in the Arctic.
Governments have backtracked on their own commitments to urgently reduce climate-heating emissions from the shipping sector, at a key meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) held virtually this week.
After the Covid-19 pandemic made large gatherings of people unsafe around the world, environmental groups with consultative status at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), including the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC), of which Seas At Risk is a member, have written to the IMO Secretary General, Mr Kitack Lim, encouraging the organisation to continue its critical ship climate talks virtually.
Today’s commitment by governments to require international shipping to decarbonise and at least halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is a welcome and potentially game changing development, the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) has said. But the lack of any clear plan of action to deliver the emissions reductions, including urgently needed short-term measures, is a major concern, according to the group of NGOs[1] with observer status at the UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
Last night European states have been joined by the Marshall Islands, Chile, Mexico and other nations* in a call for urgent action to tackle shipping's contribution to the climate crisis. Signatories to the "Tony De Brum Declaration" have restated their support for the objectives of the Paris Agreement and called for action on shipping consistent with those objectives.
EU governments and Members of the European Parliament have agreed that Europe should act on ship greenhouse gas emissions from 2023 if the International Maritime Organisation fails to deliver effective global measures.
Greenhouse gas emissions from three ship types - containerships, bulkers and tankers - could be reduced by a third, on average, by reducing their speed. The cumulative savings from reducing the speed of these ships alone could, by 2030, be as much as 12% of shipping’s total remaining carbon budget if the world is to stay under the 1.5ºC global temperature rise, the CE Delft study found.
Greenhouse gas emissions from three ship types - containerships, bulkers and tankers - could be reduced by a third, on average, by reducing their speed, according to a new independent study that will be presented to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) next week. The cumulative savings [1] from reducing the speed of these ships alone could, by 2030, be as much as 12% of shipping’s total remaining carbon budget [2] if the world is to stay under the 1.5ºC global temperature rise, the CE Delft study for NGOs Seas At Risk and Transport & Environment, founding members of the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC), found.
This document has been submitted to the International Maritime Organisation. In this document the Clean Shipping Coalition, of which Seas At Risk is member, stresses the importance of peaking and reducing emissions from international shipping as soon as possible and presents information in support of the use of operational speed management to this end.
The UN's shipping body has settled on the main elements of an interim strategy aiming to decarbonise the sector. Over 170 countries meeting at the International Maritime Organisation in London had some substantive discussion on objectives and ways to decarbonise shipping resulting in a 7-step outline that now needs to be developed into an interim plan due in 2018. One proposal calling for the shipping sector to adopt climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement and decarbonise by the second half of the century gained overwhelming expressions of support but failed to reach a consensus.
Recent improvements in the design efficiency of new ships went into reverse last year, a new independent study has found. According to the CE Delft study the average design efficiency of new bulk carriers, oil tankers and gas carriers was worse in 2016 than in 2015. The share of new ships complying with future efficiency standards also decreased in 2016. The design efficiency of containerships and general cargo ships appears to be stagnating after a period of improvement.
The deal - signed off in December 2015 by 195 countries - aims to limit global warming to well below 2C above pre industrial levels, a ceiling deemed dangerous by scientists. It’s important to note the White House decision does not directly impact climate talks at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Shipping was not included in the Paris Agreement and negotiations on maritime pollution control, the use of HFO in polar waters and CO2 cuts are the focus of IMO. On Friday the EU and China will announce a new range of collaborative measures on climate, including a pledge to “reinforce cooperation” at the IMO. But with the US accounting for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, Trump’s decision raises the pressure on all major industrial sectors to deliver their fair share of carbon cuts.
In this document it is stressed the importance of quickly agreeing a long-term target and reduction pathway for GHG emissions from international shipping that is consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement, the urgent need to identify and implement immediate near-term measures that will result in early peaking of emissions, the importance of including within the GHG strategy an overhauled EEDI consistent with decarbonization of the fleet in the second half of the century, and the need to assess the impacts on vulnerable States in parallel with the consideration of final measures.
The Clean Shipping Coalition, of which Seas At Risk is member, comments here on the findings of a new study into the design efficiency of ships that includes the most recent data on ships built in 2016. The study finds that a considerable number of ships in different ship categories already comply with phase 2 and even phase 3 requirements, providing further evidence that EEDI requirements need strengthening. The study also finds, however, that design efficiency improvements appear to have stalled in 2016, with the average design efficiency of new bulk carriers, tankers and gas carriers being worse in 2016 than in 2015. Of equal concern is the study's finding that a surprisingly large share of the ships that entered the fleet in 2016 had efficiency (EIV) scores well above the reference line, sometimes as much as 50%, suggesting that there may be non-compliance with the EEDI
The European Parliament has agreed to support a proposal from its own Environment Committee to include shipping in the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (ETS).
In this letter CAN Europe, Seas At Risk, Transport & Environment, Carbon Market Watch and the Aviation Environment Federation urge the European Commission to ensure the aviation and maritime sectors reduce emissions in line with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.
In a welcome development the Environment Committee of the European Parliament agreed to support the inclusion of shipping in a revised EU greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (ETS). Under the proposal shipping would be included in the ETS from 2023 if the International Maritime Organisation fails to establish a global measure by the deadline they agreed earlier this year.
Environmental groups strongly criticised the most recent International Maritime Organisation (IMO) response to the Paris Agreement objective of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees, and in particular the lack of an agreement to establish a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for the shipping sector. The outcome fails to allay fears that the IMO might be unable to tackle this issue in an effective and timely manner and reinforces the argument that the EU should push ahead with its own regional measure.
London, 28 October 2016 - Statement on behalf of environmental NGOs Transport & Environment and Seas At Risk- Abandoning a review of ship efficiency targets until 2018 at the earliest, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) today turned down an easy opportunity to act on climate change, environmental groups Transport & Environment (T&E) and Seas at Risk (SAR), members of the Clean Shipping Coalition, have said.
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