As the International Maritime Organization (IMO) prepares for its Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting (MEPC 82) this week, the Clean Shipping Coalition has called on national delegations to insist on revising ship efficiency standards to meet the organisation’s climate targets.
This week’s Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships (ISWG-GHG-17) marked the first time that all three critical elements of the IMO’s GHG Strategy implementation—the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) revision, Global Fuel Standard (GFS), and a greenhouse gas (GHG) levy—were on the table simultaneously.
Delaine McCullough, President of the Clean Shipping Coalition, emphasised the urgency of the situation: “At this week’s intersessional ship climate negotiations, we saw growing support for a ship GHG levy and fuel standard. These need to be urgently agreed, but they are not enough on their own. At MEPC 82, unless IMO member states show an equal commitment to revision of the organisation’s energy efficiency rules—the CII—international shipping will be unable to meet the crucial emission-reduction targets that it agreed only last year.”
McCullough stressed the importance of a comprehensive approach: “Having the GHG levy and fuel standard, along with the CII revision, will ensure the shipping sector maximises energy efficiency to immediately cut emissions, drive the uptake of onboard wind and solar propulsion and investment in scalable zero-emission fuels, and guarantee an equitable and just transition to zero-emission shipping. There’s no time to waste on false solutions—the IMO member states must adopt a comprehensive and fully integrated set of efficiency, fuel and energy emission standards, and carbon pricing policies.”
Global Fuel Standard
Constance Dijkstra, IMO Policy Manager at Transport & Environment, commented on the Global Fuel Standard: “The IMO agreed to targets last year but, as we enter the crucial phase of hashing out concrete measures to deliver them on the Global Fuel Standard progress is shaky. As discussions move forward, this can be the beginning of the end for fossil fuels in shipping. But there is a high risk that IMO rules might end up doing more damage than good by promoting biodiversity-destroying biofuels. Countries must be razor-focused on promoting wind and future-proof fuels such as sustainable e-fuels, and promote these as they iron out the details of the rules.”
Greenhouse Gas Levy
Bastien Bonnet-Catalloube, an Expert on the decarbonisation of aviation and shipping at Carbon Market Watch, noted the growing support for a GHG levy: “It is positive to see that a universal levy on all shipping’s life-cycle GHG emissions gathered significant support in this first week of IMO meetings. In the second week, we must reach a consensus around a levy of $150/tonne of life-cycle GHG emissions, as proposed by a group of Pacific Island and Caribbean states, thereby meeting the requirements of the GHG Strategy for mid-term measures with both a technical and economic element and that address the just and equitable transition. Only a strong levy accompanying a GFS can do that. The time is now.”
Additional Concerns
The meeting will also address concerns about black carbon emissions, emission control areas, scrubbers, underwater noise, plastics, and shipbreaking. Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, emphasised the need for new regulations to reduce black carbon emissions in the polar regions. Sönke Diesener, shipping expert at NABU, called for stricter regulation of emission control areas. Maarten Verdaasdonk, Project Manager Clean Shipping at the North Sea Foundation, urged a ban on scrubbers. Sarah Bobbe, Senior Manager, Arctic Program, Ocean Conservancy, stressed the importance of reducing underwater noise. Amy Youngman, Legal and Policy Specialist at Environmental Investigation Agency, highlighted the need for meaningful action on plastics. Ingvild Jenssen, Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, called for improved standards in shipbreaking to stop pollution.
The upcoming MEPC 82 meeting is set to be a pivotal moment for the shipping industry’s climate ambitions, with calls for comprehensive and integrated policies to ensure a just and equitable transition to zero-emission shipping.
