FIVE more countries now support aligning the UN’s International Maritime Organisation’s 2050 zero shipping emission targets of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
They are the Cook Islands, Mexico, Myanmar, Colombia and Malaysia publicly endorsed the 2050 zero shipping emission target for the first time at the MEPC 78 (Marine Environment Protection Committee).
Delegates debated revising the IMO’s current climate strategy and will continue the negotiations at MEPC 79 in December, while gathering for additional working group talks (ISWG-GHG) beforehand.
There is a growing majority among IMO member states in favour of the Paris Agreement-aligned ambition to clean up international shipping. said the report.
Shipping is a major climate polluter that is not yet on track to meet the 1.5C degree global warming target of the Paris Agreement. The IMO currently aims to ‘only’ halve emissions from ships by 2050. Delegates must reach a decision by MEPC 80 in 2023.
Fifty countries have endorsed the 2050 zero shipping emissions target at the IMO so far (MEPC 77 and MEPC 78): the UK, France, Norway, Greece, Australia, Germany, Canada, the US, Liberia, Cyprus, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Vanuatu, Denmark, Finland, Republic of Marshall Islands, Japan, the Bahamas, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Iceland, Malta, Croatia, Slovenia, Panama, Ukraine, Palau, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Jamaica, Tonga, Tuvalu, Myanmar, Colombia, Malaysia, Fiji, Georgia, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Nicaragua, and Kenya.
A narrowing group of countries stopped short – once again – of endorsing this level of ambition. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that governments must halve emissions by 2030 on the way to full decarbonisation by 2050, to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.
