ICS : Shipping Industry Remains Committed to Reducing CO2 Emissions – gCaptain
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President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change will have no impact on the shipping industry’s commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) said Monday.
With the United Nations Ocean Conference opening today in New York, the ICS is preparing to explain to the high-level conference, organized by the UN General Assembly, that the global shipping industry remains fully committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goal for the protection of the world’s oceans.
Speaking at a session on the prevention of ocean acidification, ICS will present some ambitious ‘aspirational objectives’ on CO2 reduction which the industry – responsible for moving about 90% of global trade – wants the IMO, as the industry’s global regulator, to adopt on behalf of the international shipping sector, in the same way that governments under the Paris Agreement have adopted CO2 reduction commitments on behalf of their national economies.
The industry has proposed that the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) should agree an objective of keeping total CO2 emissions from the shipping sector below 2008 levels and then cut annual total CO2 emissions from the sector by 2050, by a percentage to be agreed by IMO.
The ICS notes that this is in addition to an existing industry commitment to cut CO2 emissions per tonne of cargo carried one kilometer by 50% by 2050, compared to 2008.
“Shipping, because of its great size, is currently responsible for about 2.2% of annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions,” says ICS Director of Policy, Simon Bennett, as he prepares speak before the world’s governments attending the UN Ocean Conference.