The clock is ticking on the shipping industry’s climate laggards.
In little over a year the UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO) needs to get its act together and deliver an interim plan to cut shipping’s carbon footprint.
The maths are clear. According to the IMO’s 2014 analysis the sector accounts for around 3% of global CO2 emissions, similar to Germany.
It’s a share of carbon pollution that is set to rise sharply. The IMO estimates emissions could spike between 50-250% by 2050 unless action is taken now to clean up the global fleet.
That’s enough to wipe out chances of avoiding temperature rises beyond 1.5/2C above the long term average, leading to more sea level rise, droughts, floods and famine.
Time for action
Many governments, industry and lobby groups attending the London-based IMO’s environment meetings seem content for the future to look like this.
But not everyone agrees, notably the European Union and a growing coalition of small island states worried about climate change wiping out their future.
This week EU ministers meeting in Malta have an ideal chance to underline their commitment to the world’s poorest and most climate vulnerable countries.
Just as the EU was at the forefront of the Paris climate agreement in 2015, and as its domestic actions created the momentum to deliver an international aviation climate pact, so Europe can and must lead on shipping.
European MEPs have already signalled their intent.
Earlier this year the European Parliament voted to include shipping in the region’s carbon trading scheme in 2023 if the IMO fails to deliver an ambitious climate deal by then.
It’s a vote we should be proud of: a sign that while some world leaders appear to think climate change is a hoax, other politicians are scientifically literate.
Not all EU member states believe this is the right move. Malta, Cyprus and Greece, with governments in thrall to their big shipping sectors want the EU to back off.
They say only the IMO has the mandate to make a decision, in the full knowledge that it has manifestly failed to do that since first asked to cut CO2 by the UN in 1997.
They say rely on a regime of regulation the OECD has branded ‘rudderless’, suggesting it was ‘standing and staring at the water’.
It’s a position that lets down much of the developing world increasingly feeling the bite of climate change.
Last week the World Meteorological Organisation said the planet was heading into “uncharted territory” after three years of record warming.
Clean up or shut up
Instead of pursuing their own narrow vested interests, Greece, Cyprus and Malta should swing behind fellow member states and EU MEPs to ensure the IMO delivers a truly ambitious climate deal.
That means agreement on a carbon reduction target and measures in line with the Paris Agreement, financial support for greening the sector and an effective enforcement regime.
It means sending positive policy signals to industry leaders, and taking on the shady organisations that argue it’s impossible for ships to quit fossil fuels.
And it means protecting Europe’s citizens from harmful emissions: 50,000 a year suffer premature deaths linked to shipping pollution.
How long can we allow dirty ships to kill our citizens? In my view it’s time to clean up or shut up.
Faig Abbasov is an Aviation and Shipping Officer at Transport & Environment