IMO settles for ‘by or around 2050’ net-zero target for shipping

IMO settles for ‘by or around 2050’ net-zero target for shipping
Hannah Alcoseba Fernandez July 7, 2023

Experts call the new target ‘vague and non-committal’. It is understood that China – the world's biggest shipowner – had blocked attempts by climate-vulnerable states to bring the sector in alignment with the Paris Agreement.

After two weeks of tough negotiations, 175 member states of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) failed to agree on absolute emission reduction targets by the middle of the century.

Instead they settled on a revised target that looks at “striving for” curbing shipping emissions by up to 30 per cent by 2030, by up to 80 per cent by 2040, in order to reach net zero “by or around 2050”, depending on “national circumstances”, according to the final text of the resolution.
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IMO secretary general Kitack Lim, however, described the adoption of the 2023 IMO greenhouse gas strategy as a “monumental development” for the organisation. He said it opens a new chapter towards maritime decarbonisation.

He also emphasised that the consensus 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,” he told IMO delegates. “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.”

Experts criticised the target as lacking, as it does not do what is needed to keep the global rise in temperatures to below 1.5°C, in line with the Paris accord.

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