Countdown to MEPC 80: UNCTAD says outcome of IMO’s environment committee meeting will be crucial for ‘just transition’

The outcome of the IMO’s 80th Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting next week will be crucial “in ensuring a global approach to maritime decarbonisation where no-one is left behind,” the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a recently published report.

PHOTO: IMO Headquarters in London. Getty Images

The maritime sector’s transition to scalable zero-emission fuels is expected to have different effects on IMO member states, UNCTAD says. While the shift will open export opportunities for the producers of zero-emission fuels, it will increase trade costs for some regions due to the transition towards expensive alternative fuels.

The energy transition “will increase the price of freight globally, leading to a wide spectrum of impacts on several geographies, commodities and trade routes,” UNCTAD argues.

“Due to the need to urgently decarbonise international shipping, not least to secure the mere survival of climate-vulnerable states, and the reality of disproportionate negative impacts on some states, there is a need to explore policies capable of distributing the costs and benefits related to international maritime decarbonisation,” it says.

It adds that the potential to produce alternative marine fuels like green ammonia, green methanol and green hydrogen is more skewed towards the Global South and developing countries. This means maritime decarbonisation will create new economic opportunities, which should be “ultimately explored and developed.”

IMO member states are expected to address these concerns at MEPC 80, it says.

By Shilpa Sharma

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