Global Shipping Industry Makes Monumental Climate Pledge

The shipping industry has agreed to a climate pledge to reduce its planet-heating pollution to net zero “by or around” 2050.

Photo Insert: In the new agreement – the 2023 IMO Strategy on the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships – countries agreed shipping would reach net zero “by or around, i.e. close to 2050” depending on “national circumstances.”

While the agreement, published on Friday, marks higher climate ambition from a polluting industry, experts have slammed the deal as inadequate as the climate crisis worsens, Laura Paddison reported for CNN.

The industry, which transports more than 80% of the world’s traded goods, produces around 3% of all human-caused planet-heating pollution due to the fossil fuels it uses.

Until now, the industry has not had a commitment to reach net zero – which would mean removing from the atmosphere at least as much planet-warming pollution as it emits.

That changed on Friday, when the International Maritime Organization, the UN body that regulates global shipping, published a new climate strategy after days of negotiations between the organization’s 175 member states.

In the new agreement – the 2023 IMO Strategy on the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships – countries agreed shipping would reach net zero “by or around, i.e. close to 2050” depending on “national circumstances.”

The plan also includes interim commitments under the heading “indicative checkpoints,” where countries would aim to reduce planet-heating pollution from shipping by at least 20% by 2030 and 70% by 2040, compared to 2008 levels.

The document also refers to “striving” targets of a 30% cut by 2030 and an 80% cut by 2040.

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