Bill Hemmings News

The international shipping community has made little progress to advance the global  commitment made earlier this year to reduce the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions."This is despite impassioned pleas for action by climate scientists to the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) environment committee last month," said Transport & Environment (T&E).The leading NGO campaigning for cleaner transport in Europe said that some IMO delegates soon ‘would not have a country to land on’ due to global warming if this pace of activity continues."Shipping is one of the few sectors of the global economy not to have an obligatory climate emissions reduction target, despite being responsible for 3% of global CO2 emissions.

The commitment by governments to require international shipping to decarbonise and at least halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is a welcome and potentially game changing development, the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) has said. But the lack of any clear plan of action to deliver the emissions reductions, including urgently needed short-term measures, is a major concern, according to the group of NGOs with observer status at the UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO). After two weeks of difficult talks, countries attending the IMO meeting in London agreed to require the shipping sector to reduce its emissions by “at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008”. This falls short of the 70-100% cut by 2050 that is needed to align shipping with the goals of the Paris agreement.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has agreed on an initial strategy to decarbonise international shipping and reduce emissions from ships by at least 50% by 2050. While this agreement falls short of the 70 to 100% reductions by 2050 that the Pacific Islands, the EU and others were calling for ahead of the meeting, it keeps a window open to meet the Paris climate goals and is undeniably a game changer for the shipping sector. This plan serves as a welcome first step to phase out emissions from the sector, but the IMO must now build on the agreed minimum target of 50% reductions in subsequent reviews of the strategy to comply with its fair share of emissions under the Paris Agreement.

The United Nations shipping agency reached an agreement on Friday to cut carbon emissions, following years of slow progress. The compromise plan, which will cut emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 compared with 2008 levels, fell short of more ambitious targets. Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said the adoption of the strategy "would allow future IMO work on climate change to be rooted in a solid basis". The IMO said it would also be pursuing efforts towards phasing out CO2 emissions entirely.

The UN's shipping body has settled on the main elements of an interim strategy aiming to decarbonise the sector, said a press release from Seas at Risk. Over 170 countries meeting at the International Maritime Organisation in London had some substantive discussion on objectives and ways to decarbonise shipping resulting in a 7-step outline that now needs to be developed into an interim plan due in 2018. One proposal calling for the shipping sector to adopt climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement and decarbonise by the second half of the century gained overwhelming expressions of support but failed to reach a consensus. The meeting saw China and India voice strong support for alternative low carbon fuels…

The global shipping industry has urged the European Union to drop the sector's inclusion in proposals adopted on Wednesday to reform the bloc's carbon market, saying it risks distorting trade and international efforts to cut the sector's emissions. About 90 percent of world trade is transported by sea, with shipping accounting for an estimated 2.2 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and forecast to rise dramatically unless action is taken. The draft reforms of the EU's carbon market post-2020 that were adopted by the European Parliament on Wednesday could result in emissions from the shipping sector being included in the bloc’s emissions trading system (ETS) for the first time.

Growth in emissions from shipping and aviation will undo nearly half (43%) of the savings expected to be made by the rest of transport in Europe through to 2030, a new independent study has found. It means that almost half of the already-inadequate emissions savings expected in land transport will be cancelled out by ships and planes, according to the report commissioned by sustainable group Transport & Environment (T&E). Bill Hemmings, aviation and shipping director at T&E, said: “Planes and ships are free riding at the expense of land transport’s already insufficient efforts to cut emissions. This is not only unfair but a roadblock to Europe meeting its own climate commitments.

The Paris climate agreement’s target of limiting global warming well below 2°C will be impossible without measures to curb shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions, MEPs told industry representatives last week. Including shipping CO2 in the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) or having the sector contribute to a climate compensation fund were the options on the table, they said. MEPs from four political groups – the conservatives (EPP), the socialists (S&D), the liberals (ALDE) and the left-wing GUE – said the revision of the EU ETS, currently underway, needs to include shipping emissions in the EU 2030 climate target and contribute to meeting the Paris limits. Shipping is the only sector of the European economy not covered by the EU’s existing emissions reduction target.

Brussels sets end-2016 deadline for CO2-cutting proposals by IMO. The shipping industry expects to be stung by a carbon levy as momentum building from climate talks in Paris starting this month makes a cut to its greenhouse gas emissions likely. Any tax - either a levy based on fuel use by diesel-driven ships or a market based mechanism - would add to rising costs for the industry, which transports 90 percent of world trade. A draft Paris text makes scant mention of reducing CO2 from marine bunker fuels. Yet ship industry sources say some form of taxation is expected to come in the wake of any deal at the Nov.30-Dec. 11 summit. "We do expect that sooner or later shipping will be regulated on CO2…

The shipping industry emissions is back in the draft Paris COP 21 agreement following a meeting of negotiators in Bonn last week. Shipping was dropped earlier in October. However, on October 14, E.U. parliamentarians called for emissions reduction targets for both sectors to be set before the end of 2016 by the corresponding UN agencies, the IMO and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Transport & Environment (T&E) has welcomed the reinsertion of international shipping and aviation CO2 emissions into the draft Paris agreement. Praising the decision to re-include the industry along with aviation EU sustainability lobby group T&E has called for a “clear signal” to these sectors.

Trident Alliance has invited representatives from national and European authorities and NGO’s to discuss how effective enforcement of sulphur regulations can be achieved on the high seas. The event will take place on March 3 during the European Shipping Week in Brussels. The ECA zones 0.1 % Sulphur limit came into force as of January 1, 2015. Trident Alliance said robust enforcement is necessary to achieve the intended benefits to health and the environment, and is also critical to ensuring fair competition. Compliance comes at unprecedented expense, Trident Alliance noted. Notwithstanding recent drops in oil prices, the price differential between HFO and MGO has changed little. Switching to lower sulphur MGO almost doubles fuel costs.

Shipping Fuel Transparency Will Lower Emissions and Cut Costs. NGOs call on shipping industry regulator to drive down costs, trigger improved fuel efficiency and reduce ship GHG emissions through efficiency data transparency. Transport & Environment, Seas at Risk and Carbon War Room are urging the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) not to withhold data on ship efficiency and fuel consumption. The call for action follows moves by some industry groups to undermine initiatives…

The new draft ‘Polar Code’ of safety and environmental rules, issued on 24, January 2014, fails to address the looming danger of having non ice-strengthened and poorly prepared ships in supposedly ‘ice-free’ polar waters, environmental organisations have warned. The final draft, drawn up by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), governs ships operating in Arctic and Antarctic waters. Increased shipping activity poses significant new threats to the polar environment and wildlife through oil spills, black carbon deposition, sewage discharges and the introduction of invasive species.