World Shipping Council welcomes the IMO’s agreement on a greenhouse gas reduction strategy
The World Shipping Council (WSC) and its members welcome the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) agreement on an ambitious strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, WSC said in its press release.
This week’s action by the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) is important for both political and practical reasons. In political terms, the agreement demonstrates to the world that IMO Member governments can find a common way forward despite real differences of opinion. This is a global challenge, and it can only be effectively addressed at a global level. As a practical matter, the size of the planned emission s cuts make s it clear that the shipping industry can only meet these objectives by a transition over time to new fuels and new propulsion systems.
The MEPC’s Initial Strategy is a significant achievement. It is now clear that the long -term future of the international shipping industry will not be based on burning fossil fuels. What is not clear is which technologies and which fuels will allow the industry to continue to serve world trade sustainably in the next half of this century and beyond.
The industry faces a substantial engineering challenge to identify, develop, and deploy the new fuels and new technologies that will eliminate carbon emissions from shipping. The World Shipping Council and other organizations submitted a paper last year to MEPC describing the need for a substantial, focused, and sustained research and development effort – organized through the IMO – to create the technological tools necessary to implement the ambitious climate goals that the IMO has now articulated.
Through the debate at the IMO, many nations and organizations have emphasized the critical role of research and development. WSC look s forward to working with Member States and others to turn that shared R&D concept into a reality.
The World Shipping Council is an association of liner shipping companies with offices in Brussels and Washington, D.C. Its members transport over 90 percent of international containerized trade. The WSC’s goal is to provide a coordinated voice for the liner shipping industry in its work with policymakers and other industry groups interested in international transportation issues.
