The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has reworked its submission to IMO proposing what form that body’s draft initial strategy on reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships should take.

Suggesting that the focus be of a reduction on the specific GHG of CO2, the ICS calls for the IMO to declare that it is “committed to the decarbonisation of international shipping within (rather than “by” as previously) the second half of the century” – in order to make clear that full decarbonisation is not feasible before 2050.

However, the ICS also calls for the inclusion of objectives/goals in the initial strategy that “establish a baseline year for the early peaking of CO2 emissions from international shipping, as well as setting out some serious long term aspirations for cutting the sector’s CO2 emissions by the middle of the century.”

The IMO needs to publish “a bold vision” setting out how shipping intends to reduce its carbon footprint in the short term, and aspire towards eradicating its carbon footprint altogether in the longer term, ICS secretary general Peter Hinchliffe told Seatrade Maritime News.

Source:seatrade-maritime.com