Countries at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) revised global shipping’s climate targets under the Revised Strategy in July 2023, at the 80th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee Meeting (MEPC 80). The agreed level of ambition is to cut emission from shipping by 30% by 2030 and by 80% by 2040, in order to reach zero by 2050.
While the revised targets are deemed insufficient to meet the crucial 1.5°C temperature-limit agreed under the Paris Agreement, they nonetheless still keep this trajectory within reach.
Countries, the industry, and other maritime stakeholders need to work together on policies and initiatives to deliver shipping’s transition to zero-emission, and they need to achieve it in an equitable way.
At the IMO, this concerns in particular:
- Revision of short-term measures: including the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) and Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI);
- Adoption of mid-term measures: including a global shipping levy (economic measure) and a fuel standard/mandate (technical measure).
These measures need to be revised and adopted in line with the agreed IMO targets, while striving for a 1.5°C-aligned transition. This website serves as a “guidebook” to IMO delegates in this process, providing answers to key questions and updates on key policy developments.
Why is short term emission reduction important for shipping?
The 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports warn that rapid and significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is needed across all sectors of the economy, in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
For global shipping, this means urgent action to phase out the use of fossil fuels, and scale up the uptake of zero-emission fuels and technologies and efficiency measures, such as green hydrogen-derived fuels, wind-propulsion technologies, and slow-steaming of vessels.
The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) projects that a 1.5°C-aligned transition in the sector requires emissions to go down by 36% by 2030 and by 96% by 2040 (“S-Curve IPCC 1.5”), and reach zero by 2050.
The SBTi “S-Curve IPCC 1.5” trajectory operates with the same volume of climate pollution as the IPCC reports. However, it takes into account the slower technological development and scaling up of zero-emission fuels in the industry in 2020s, followed by a more rapid decarbonisation in the years between 2030 and 2040.
The UN’s report on the ‘2030 Breakthrough Goals’ for shipping shows that companies are already taking important steps to limit the climate impacts of their vessels. However, a clear regulatory signal is urgently needed to lend confidence to the industry, investors, and energy providers to step up their efforts in transitioning to zero-emission:
- Improve energy and operational efficiency measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships in 2020s (e.g. slow-steaming);
- Stimulate investments in zero-emission fuels (e.g. green hydrogen-derived fuels) and energy sources (e.g. wind propulsion) to ensure rapid adoption in 2030-2040;
- Encourage energy providers to scale up clean energy production now to meet shipping’s future needs.
Getting to Zero coalition estimates that zero-emission marine fuels need to make up at least 5% of all marine fuels by 2030 for Paris-aligned shipping decarbonization.
Major industry leaders and green hydrogen producers committed to work together to achieve the 5% uptake of green hydrogen in the sector at COP27.
What can you do?
The most important thing IMO delegates can do is to align their shipping policy stance with their government’s overall climate policy, and honor their commitment under the Paris Agreement to pursue efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, through full decarbonisation of all economic sectors.
As shipping emits more CO2 than all but the top 5 emitting countries, for most countries stance at IMO can have greater climate impact (either positive or negative) than domestic policy choices.
IMO delegates’ policy stances will be scrutinised by global media at the IMO meeting, as the regulator will need to reach an agreement on measures to deliver on its climate committments.