MEPC 80 sets new GHG reduction targets for shipping
Written by Nick Blenkey
Participants at IMO’s MEPC 80 gave themselves a round of applause after agreeing a strategy that calls for shipping to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. [Photo: IMO]
This week’s meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC 80) saw member states adopt the 2023 IMO Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships.
The strategy fell short of what some of the greenest-of-the-green industry voices wanted, but it did not fulfill their worst fears.
It includes an enhanced common ambition to reach net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping close to 2050, a commitment to ensure an uptake of alternative zero and near-zero GHG fuels by 2030, as well as indicative check-points for 2030 and 2040.
“The adoption of the 2023 IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy is a monumental development for IMO and opens a new chapter towards maritime decarbonization,” said IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim. “At the same time, it is not the end goal, it is in many ways a starting point for the work that needs to intensify even more over the years and decades ahead of us. However, with the Revised Strategy that you have now agreed on, we have a clear direction, a common vision, and ambitious targets to guide us to deliver what the world expects from us.”
“Above all, it is particularly meaningful, to have unanimous support from all Member States. In this regard, I believe that we have to pay more attention to support developing countries, in particular SIDS and LDCs, so that no one is left behind,” he added.
WHAT’S IN THE STRATEGY?
The actual text of the agreed strategy is a heavy-going read that industry analysts will be plowing through for quite a while (if you want to join them, there’s a link at the end of this post). Meantime, the IMO Secretariat has issued a summary of its elements. Here are a few key elements:
Levels of ambition
1) carbon intensity of the ship to decline through further improvement of the energy efficiency for new ships, to be reviewed with the aim of strengthening the energy efficiency design requirements for ships;
2) carbon intensity of international shipping to decline, to reduce CO2 emissions per transport work, as an average across international shipping, by at least 40% by 2030, compared to 2008;
3) uptake of zero or near-zero GHG emission technologies, fuels and/or energy sources to increase uptake of zero or near-zero GHG emission technologies, fuels and/or energy sources to represent at least 5%, striving for 10%, of the energy used by international shipping by 2030; and
4) GHG emissions from international shipping to reach net zero; to peak GHG emissions from international shipping as soon as possible and to reach net-zero GHG emissions by or around, i.e. close to 2050, taking into account different national circumstances, whilst pursuing efforts towards phasing them out as called for in the Vision consistent with the long-term temperature goal set out in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement.
Indicative checkpoints to reach net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping
1) to reduce the total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 20%, striving for 30%, by 2030, compared to 2008; and
2: to reduce the total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 70%, striving for 80%, by 2040, compared to 2008.
Basket of candidate mid-term GHG reduction measures
The 2023 GHG Strategy states that a basket of candidate measure(s), delivering on the reduction targets, should be developed and finalized comprised of both:
- a technical element, namely a goal-based marine fuel standard regulating the phased reduction of the marine fuel’s GHG intensity; and
- an economic element, on the basis of a maritime GHG emissions pricing mechanism.
Next steps
The 2023 Strategy sets out a timeline towards adoption of the basket of measures and adoption of the updated 2028 IMO GHG Strategy on reduction of GHG emissions from ships:
MEPC 81 (Spring 2024) – Interim report on Comprehensive impact assessment of the basket of candidate mid-term measures/Finalization of basket of measures
MEPC 82 (Autumn 2024) – Finalized report on Comprehensive impact assessment of the basket of candidate mid-term measures
MEPC 83 (Spring 2025) – Review of the short-term measure to be completed by 1 January 2026
MEPC 84 (Spring 2026) – Approval of measures / Review of the short-term measure (EEXI and CII) to be completed by 1 January 2026
Extraordinary one or two-day MEPC (six months after MEPC 83 in Autumn 2025) – Adoption of measures
Target dates:
MEPC 85 (Autumn 2026)
16 months after adoption of measures (2027) – Entry into force of measures
MEPC 86 (Summer 2027) – Initiate the review of the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy
MEPC 87 (Spring 2028)
MEPC 88 (Autumn 2028) – Finalization of the review of the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy with a view to adoption of the 2028 IMO Strategy on reduction of GHG emissions from ships.
ICS COMMENTS
Some of the first industry comments on the new strategy came from Simon Bennett, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Deputy Secretary General.
“ICS greatly welcomes the ambitious agreement reached by governments at IMO today for shipping to achieve net zero emissions ‘by or around 2050’, in line with the Paris Agreement and the commitment made by the shipping industry at COP 26 in Glasgow back in 2021,” said. “This historic IMO agreement gives a very strong signal to ship operators and, most importantly, to energy producers who must now urgently supply zero GHG marine fuels in very large quantities if such a rapid transition is to be possible.”
Bennett called the checkpoints agreed for 2030 and 2040 “particularly ambitious.”
“The industry will do everything possible to achieve these goals including the 70% to 80% absolute reduction of GHG emissions now demanded of the entire global shipping sector by 2040. But this can only be achieved if IMO rapidly agrees to a global levy on ships’ GHG emissions to support a ‘fund and reward’ mechanism, as proposed by the industry. We urgently need to reduce the cost gap between conventional and alternative marine fuels and incentivize the production and uptake of new fuels at the scale now required to meet this accelerated transition. 2040 is less than 17 years away and the availability of zero GHG marine fuels today is virtually zero.”
“It is very positive that a majority of governments now support a levy for shipping involving flat rate contributions by ships per tonne of GHG emitted to an IMO fund to expedite a rapid transition,” Bennett continued. “The ICS ‘fund and reward’ proposal remains firmly on the table as a deliverable solution and will now be subject to a comprehensive impact assessment by UNCTAD to be completed by early next year, so that an economic measure can be adopted in 2025. This will be vital it we are to reach a take-off point by 2030 for the use of new fuels to achieve the extremally ambitious goal which IMO has now set for 2040.”
Categories: Environment, News
