MEPC 80: IMO fails to raise the bar – CSC
Shipping firms and associations have lauded the IMO’s revised greenhouse gas (GHG) strategy released today, but John Maggs of the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) thinks it has failed to raise the bar.
PHOTO: Members of the Clean Shipping Coalition at the IMO working group meeting last week. CSC
“This might be quite a good outcome by IMO standard, but that is setting the bar rather low,” Maggs tells ENGINE.
He asserts that the fresh targets set by the IMO are clearly not aligned with the Paris Agreement target of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
IMO today adopted a revised GHG strategy that set an "ambition to reach net-zero GHG emission close to 2050 [taking into account different national circumstances]".
The maritime regulator also announced interim GHG reduction targets (also called as “indicative checkpoints”)
- GHG reduction target of at least 20%, striving for 30%, by 2030, compared to 2008
- GHG reduction target of at least 70%, striving for 80% by 2040, compared to 2008
During the IMO working group meeting last week, John Maggs and CSC urged the IMO to adopt more ambitious interim GHG reduction targets, arguing they are critical to align shipping with the Paris Agreement. CSC, a coalition of several environmental non-profits, proposed that the interim GHG reduction target for 2030 needed to be at least 37% to ramp up shipping decarbonisation in time.
The interim targets adopted by the IMO today would lead shipping to exhaust its Paris-aligned carbon budget by 2032 at the latest, Maggs says.
“As far as protecting the planet from runaway climate change is concerned this fall far short of what is needed, and without further corrective action those that are least responsible will pay the highest price,” he adds.
By Nithin Chandran
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