Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping: waiting for concrete progress at IMO level

Briefing 29-09-2020

At the 72th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) the initial International Maritime Organization (IMO) strategy was agreed, which aims for emissions from international shipping to peak as soon as possible and to reduce the total annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008 levels and in line with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. A revised IMO strategy is scheduled to be approved by 2023 at MEPC80. A list of candidate short, medium and long-term measures are included within the initial IMO strategy in order to achieve the 2050 GHG emissions reduction target. However it will only be decided up until 2023 which candidate short-term measures will be adopted (based on timeframe agreed at MEPC73) with the medium and long-term candidate measures to be adopted only after 2023 and 2030 respectively.