Nearly 200 state members of US shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are nearing a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s cargo ships. IMO will host a series of virtual meetings starting on Monday to discuss a new rating system that will monitor the carbon intensity of 60,000 large vessels that haul everything across the globe.
In 2018, IMO state members agreed to cut the industry’s emissions by 50% by the middle of the century, and now, they are exploring ways to achieve such a goal. However, they have some unresolved issues, including on how a ship’s carbon intensity should be measured and how the monitoring should be enforced.
European countries recommend the most polluting vessels to be scrapped if they fail to comply by 2029. China, Japan, and the International Chamber of Shipping deemed the proposal too strict since ships have already been penalised if they fail to comply. Meanwhile, the Marshall Islands and other countries which are the most vulnerable to climate change said no proposed enforcements are stringent enough to prevent shipping emissions from rising further.
The shipping industry emits an immense amount of greenhouse gas. It would sit alongside Germany as the world’s sixth-largest CO2 emitter if it was a country, the World Bank said. Environmental progress in the shipping industry has been slow. IMO reached an agreement only in 2018 after numerous talks dated back to 1995. Environmental activists have warned that the industry isn’t moving quickly enough and that IMO’s efforts will do little to prevent the global temperature from increasing further.
