VIDEO: UN Sec Gen to IMO: Do your job

United Nations Secretary Secretary-General António Guterres [Screen grab from UN video]

As the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environmental Protection Committee started a crucial session on GHG reduction targets (MEPC 80), United Nations Secretary Secretary-General António Guterres called for meaningful action and said measures such as carbon pricing will push the industry in the right direction.

Here’s what he said:

Excellencies, friends.

Humanity is in dangerous waters on climate.

But the decisions you take over the coming days could help us chart a safer course.

Science tells us it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But it requires an immense and immediate global effort.

And shipping, which accounts for almost three percent of global emissions, will be vital.

The industry has seen some progress.

But it must move much faster to get on track and drive investment and innovation.

I urge you to leave London having agreed a Greenhouse Gas Strategy that commits the sector to net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest;

And that includes ambitious science-based targets starting in 2030 – both on absolute emissions reductions and the use of clean fuels.

These must include all greenhouse gas emissions and cover the whole value chain.

Such targets will provide the certainty that the industry and investors need.

I also urge you to commit to developing technical and economic policies and regulations to deliver on these targets and support a just, equitable transition.

Measures such as carbon pricing will push the industry in the right direction by making zero-emission fuels more competitive.

While the finance generated can support the just transition in developing countries and address the needs of those most vulnerable to the climate crisis.

I look forward to welcoming leaders from government and business, including shipping, to the Climate Ambition Summit I am holding in September. To present credible, concrete action to keep 1.5 degrees alive.

Excellencies, friends,

This meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee is a chance to steer us towards a clean, prosperous future for the industry – and a safer future for humanity.

I urge you to take it.

Thank you.

MEPC 80 AGENDA

What comes out of MEPC 80, which runs from July 3 to 7, remains to be seen, but the agenda is packed with items that, in addition to GHG reductions, include the Ballast Water Management Convention Review Plan, marine plastic litter, the adoption of the revised Biofouling Guidelines, and the designation of the Western Mediterranean Sea as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area.