News
Global Shipping
Industry welcomes
‘Paris Agreement’
The global shipping industry, represented by the International
Chamber of Shipping (ICS) throughout the United Nations Climate
Change Conference, greatly welcomes the ‘Paris Agreement’,
adopted unanimously on 12 December by 195 nations.
T
he shipping industry remains committed
to ambitious CO2 emission reduction
across the entire world merchant fleet,
reducing CO2 per tonne-km by at least
50% before 2050 compared to 2007.
Despite the absence of an explicit
reference to shipping, ICS says that the message
from the world’s governments is clear. “I am sure
IMO Member States will now proceed with new
momentum to help the industry deliver ever greater
CO2 reductions, as the world moves towards total
decarbonisation by the end of the Century” said ICS
Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe.
More immediately, ICS will engage meaningfully
in discussions at IMO, expected to begin in earnest at
a critical meeting in April 2016, about the possibility
of agreeing a CO2 reduction target for shipping. ICS
is also pushing for IMO to finalise a global CO2 data
collection system for ships, which ICS would like
to see mandatory as soon as possible, prior to IMO
deciding on the necessity of additional actions such as
a developing a Market Based Measure.
ICS asserts that dramatic CO2 reductions from
shipping will only be guaranteed if further regulation
continues to be led by IMO. Encouragingly, as a
result of the Paris Agreement, developing nations
such as China and India have now accepted
responsibility to curb their emissions alongside
developed economies. However, the Paris Agreement
still retains the principle of ‘differentiation’ whereby
different Parties can offer different levels of
commitment to reduce CO2.
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“CO2 is a global problem and shipping is a global
industry” said Peter Hinchliffe. “IMO is the only
forum which can take account of the UN principle of
‘differentiation’ while requiring all ships to apply the
same CO2 reduction measures, regardless of their
flag State. Unilateral or regional regulation would be
disastrous for shipping and disastrous for global CO2
reduction, whereas IMO is already helping shipping
to deliver substantial CO2 reductions on a global
basis.”
ICS says that the complexity and scale of the Paris
Agreement means that many of those involved may
be disappointed by certain aspects, including the
a bsence of explicit text referring to international
shipping. At the start of the negotiation, ICS had
hoped there might have been an acknowledgment
of the importance of IMO continuing to develop
further CO2 reduction measures, applicable to all
internationally trading ships, and implemented and
enforced in a uniform and global manner.
“Time finally ran out to agree a compromise on
international transport acceptable to all nations, but
nothing is really lost. No text is probably preferable
to some of the well intentioned words being proposed
at the very end of the Conference which few people
understood and which could have actually greatly
complicated further progress at IMO” insisted Peter
Hinchliffe. “The Member States at IMO are the
same nations that were present in Paris, but with
officials that have a deep level of maritime expertise.
Intensive work at IMO will continue with the global
shipping industry’s full support.”
International
Chamber of Shipping