The COP 26 climate summit and Marine Environment and Protection Committee session have been deemed to fail in accelerating carbon exit.
The COP 26 climate summit was held earlier in November and the 200 countries represented pushed for UN shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to adopt a zero-emissions target by 2050.
It aimed to cut the overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships by 50% from 2008 levels by 2050.
However, the summit failed to deliver enough emissions-cutting pledges from countries to set a clear path to limiting warming to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). Instead, it only closed a deal for the countries to raise their pledges in 2021 to close the gap.
IMO will revise its GHG strategy by 2023 but that timeline is not seen as fast enough by environmentalists and a number of the IMO’s 175 member countries.
IMO will also extend into 2022 is a proposal to create a USD5 billion research and development fund to find the right technology to meet the targets.
Faig Abbasov of environmental group T&E commented, “When it comes to mandatory measures on green shipping fuels, the can has been kicked down the road to 2023 without any commitment to speed up their adoption.”
Likewise, this week’s Marine Environment and Protection Committee session missed the opportunity to advance GHG reduction measures.
Guy Platten, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Shipping Association, commented, “It is almost as if COP 26 never happened.”
