A coalition of cargo owners have set zero-emissions shipping targets for 2030 with backing from the Biden administration, while a coalition of countries most vulnerable to climate change have called for an IMO-led levy on the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions to bring shipping into line with the Paris Goals’ 1.5ºC pathway
With US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry headlining, the World Economic Forum announced that a coalition of some 32 cargo-owning and cargo-shipping companies have set targets for maritime carriers, outlining that at least 5% of deepsea shipping must be powered by zero-emissions fuels by 2030.
The so-called First Movers Coalition of companies has come together through the collaboration of the institutions – the Aspen Institute, Global Maritime Forum and University College London’s Energy Institute – that helped crystallise action from cargo owners last month, when Amazon and IKEA topped the list of cargo owners in the coZEV initiative who say they will only ship ocean freight on vessels powered by zero-carbon fuels from 2040.
According to a statement from the coalition, an S-curve based analysis suggests that zero-emissions fuels need to make up 5% of the international shipping fuel mix by 2030 to enable Paris-aligned decarbonisation of shipping by 2050.
Technical strategy work from University Maritime Advisory Services (UMAS) for the Global Maritime Forum’s Getting to Zero Coalition released in the run-up to Glasgow’s COP26 meeting called for the alignment of shipping’s decarbonisation with the 1.5ºC or well-below-2ºC pathways linked to the Paris Agreement.
“We have left GHG reductions so late that if we delay investment until policy solutions at IMO are implemented, global trade risks a late and disruptive transition, said UCL Energy Institute professor and UMAS director Dr Tristan Smith.
With IMO moving too slowly, Dr Smith said the First Movers Coalition asks shipping’s ’customers’ to take responsibility for their maritime emissions while being motivated by the risks of disruption to their supply chains "if we get this wrong".
"This is already making business cases for investment in the long-run hydrogen-based solutions this sector needs, and prepares shipping’s transition for the forthcoming implementation of IMO policies that can then further scale their deployment,” said Dr Smith said.
With commitments to buy zero-emissions fuels, the cargo owners involved would be creating "early markets for critical technologies needed to achieve net-zero by 2050" both inside and outside of the shipping sector, according to Special Envoy Kerry.
Those cargo owners would then follow through on targets to ship at least 10% of their goods on vessels using zero-emissions fuels by 2030, and 100% by 2040.
A coalition of more than 50 nations which are considered among the most vulnerable to climate change has, at COP26, released their Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration. The declaration, among other things, calls on IMO to enact a carbon tax or levy to fund research and development of emissions-lowering fuels and technologies.
As part of its overall push for the world to deliver on the so-called US$100Bn/year Climate Emergency Pact – which aims to get the world’s wealthiest and most-emitting countries to make financing and technologies available for climate change mitigation measures within CVF countries – the CVF also singled out the maritime industry.
"We call upon further urgent discussion, study and work of the IMO for establishing a mandatory GHG levy on international shipping to ensure that IMO emissions measures are fully aligned with a 1.5ºC pathway," the CVF declaration said.
"We recognise the need for the shipping transition to next-generation vessels and fuels to be equitable and benefit all states. We support that the majority of the levy’s revenues be employed as additional financial support for urgent climate actions, particularly by the vulnerable developing countries. We urge members to consider adopting ambitious targets in domestic maritime emissions for a transition to zero emissions that leaves no one behind."
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