- The ocean provides the primary means to conduct world trade, with its vessels transporting global supply chains of food, fuel, medicines, and consumer goods.
- The shipping sector must cut its carbon emissions if the Paris Agreement's climate change targets are to be met.
- While the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set targets to reduce shipping emissions, several industry initiatives are driving business ambition, such as Maersk’s Decarbonization Research Centre.
Key Facts:
- The IMO’s 2050 ambition is to reduce the shipping industry’s greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050, and to reduce the carbon intensity of emissions by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050, compared to 2008 levels.
- The total cost of decarbonization has been estimated at $1.65 trillion by 2050; 87 % of this is needed for land-based infrastructure and facilities for low-carbon fuels.
What are the Key Actions to Deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals?
- International regulations to reduce shipping emissions: IMO members, Governments and the industry must support proposed regulatory measures, the timelines and the proposed stringency levels.
- An international maritime research and development fund: Achieving the IMO 2050 ambition will require a number of low- and zero-carbon technologies. A global research fund will catalyze alternative fuel technologies and prototype infrastructure.
What is the Action Platform doing this year?
- Developing key incentives to scale-up the decarbonization of shipping and take-up of low-zero carbon fuels
- Supporting transparency and financeability through further development of “blue” criteria within existing sustainable bond frameworks to expand eligibility criteria.
- Engaging with governments, the IMO, and other key stakeholders to set up a global R&D fund.
Resources:
- Ocean Stewardship 2030 (2020) Chapter 2. Decarbonizing Shipping
- Sustainable Shipping Initiative. www.ssi2040.org
