Science-based emissions targets created for maritime sector

UMAS said that the tool, which includes upstream emissions and "all GHG emission species", captures all the impact of the combustion of maritime fuels and the use of energy to operate ships.

"The tool is based on the IPCC’s special report Global warming of 1.5°C, the most recognised and authoritative source of information on the scale of GHG reductions needed. That makes the SBTi tools the most ambitious sector-specific target in contrast to the levels of ambition in the IMO Initial Strategy, which aims for a minimum of 50% GHG reduction by 2050 on 2008 levels. Whilst ambition in the IMO’s strategy may increase through the strategy’s revisions, reliance on multilateral regulation alone is not sufficient for guiding and communicating a strategy that contributes to avoiding dangerous climate change," UMAS said.

Many corporations, for example through coZEV (Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels), which includes major retailers such as Amazon and IKEA, have set long-term targets for their maritime freight to be zero emissions by 2040. The new SBTi targets will allow them to benchmark their progress in the short and medium term, including actions that maximise energy efficiency and transparently reporting on their progress against the trajectories.

"Shipping’s decarbonisation can be achieved by both improving energy efficiency and substituting the oil-derived fuels the sector currently uses with alternatives such as electricity and hydrogen-derived fuels. While many of the technologies to achieve this are mature, new energy supply chains based on low- and zero-GHG emission hydrogen are still scaling up. The shipping trajectories in the tool therefore take into consideration the rate of diffusion of new technologies and scalable zero emission fuels by basing the trajectory on an S-curve similar to the approach taken by the Getting to Zero Coalition. This means that carbon intensity reduction rates are slower for this decade, as new fuels and technologies emerge, but accelerate sharply in the 2030s, as those technologies scale up, to achieve decarbonisation by the first half of the 2040s," UMAS said.

Dr Jean-Marc Bonello, Principal Consultant at UMAS, said; “While the rate at which the carbon intensity of maritime transport needs to decline can feel daunting, this is what the science is dictating. Initiatives such as SBTi are providing a tool for companies to assess their performance and plan ahead to mitigate against costly changes to their operations too far down the line.”

Meanwhile, EU-based clean transport NGO Transport & Environment have published a study showing that 84% of ship traffic goes through the EU, US and China. Based on that figure, the group says that the three could work together to decarbonise 84% of the shipping sector with the appropriate regulations in place.

T&E sustainable shipping officer Jacob Armstrong said: “Efforts to decarbonise shipping at the IMO have so far been miserable. The need for consensus at the global level has brought us nowhere. But there is a much easier way to do it. With the vast majority of ships passing through Europe, China and the US, these leading economies can unilaterally regulate emissions without relying on the ineffective IMO.”

While China, Europe and the US only account for 40% of shipping emissions, the vast majority of ships call at one of their ports. T&E calls on the three economies to agree on measures to reduce their maritime emissions including carbon markets, pollution taxes, energy efficiency targets and zero-emission fuel standards to create a de facto global regulatory regime.