World Summit Aimed to Discuss Carbon Emission Reduction of Shipping Industry

A Summit which aims to convene governments from around the world to reach agreements on clean-up of shipping industry and reduction of its carbon emission is set this week.

Ships are major source of pollution as it produces a billion tonnes of carbon emission every year. To address the said concern, the International Maritime Organization (IM0), the UN body which regulated the industry called on the international shipping to act.

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Commitment to Reduce Carbon Emission in the Shipping Industry

In 2018, the International Marine Organization (IMO) and the shipping industry adopted strategies for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions from ships. It expressed the commitment to reducing green house gas emissions from international shipping and to phasing them out as soon as possible. The highlights of these commitments are cutting its greenhouse emissions by 50 percent by 2050, and reduce emissions before 2030 to curb pollutions.

Shipping emissions were discussed on a meeting in London on Monday.

In the London meeting, the secretary general of the IMO, Kitack Lim said that they have been "focusing on the development of short-term measures" but they must be at the soonest time possible, "proactive to foster the development of future alternative fuels"

He also said that the IMO has to ensure that "no country is left behind in the transition to decarbonisation of international shipping."

Placing much hopes on technological developments

The use of greener fuels like ammonia, ethanol, hydrogen and even wind power were widely discussed but the shipping industry reckons that these options have drawbacks such as the enormous cost of shifting from fossil fuel use.

Last year, a group of ship owners announced a $5bn research fund to design zero emissions vessel. Guy Platten, from the International Chamber of Shipping called for support on the said initiative in the meeting. He said that "zero-carbon fuels are not available on the size and scale needed to drive decarbonisation."

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Pressure to cut emissions

The sector is now under pressure to meet the cut on emission. US President-elect Joe Biden has picked the issue as target for the new US government's green priorities.

Meanwhile, the European Union is contemplating action to force the industry to accept an emission trading scheme which would impose tougher rules on EU ships.

According to John Butler, the chief executive of the World Shipping Council, the industry will come up with "hard solutions rather than rhetoric."

He added that while there may wide discussions on the direction of the shipping industry by 2050 but with no research and development and the engineering, it will just end up being talk."

The summit will last until Friday.

Paris Agreements Are Not Met

However, environmental activists said that the current proposal of the shipping industry do not meet the required Paris targets.

In a joint statement from a group of six non-governmental organizations, the group warned that the shipping industry's proposal will not restraint or reduce the one billion tons of emission and the increasing annual emission this decade.

John Maggs, the president of the Clean Shipping Coalition said that the need for immediate action is so pressing that prevarication and delay is unacceptable. He called on the delegates who are unhappy with the current deal to reject it saying that it is a terrible greenwash deal in which it "pretends to regulate the shipping industry's carbon dioxide emission but actually allows them to keep growing indefinitely."

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