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The global shipping industry has joined with international nonprofit organizations to recommend that governments at the United Nations climate change conference in Durban give the International Maritime Organization clear guidance on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide from commercial shipping.
The international aid agency Oxfam, the global conservation organization WWF, and the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents 80 percent of the world's merchant fleet, today issued a joint call to delegates to recognize that placing a charge on carbon emissions by ships can help control climate change.
The International Maritime Organization is the UN agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of pollution by ships.
"The international shipping industry is firmly committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020, with significant further reductions thereafter," said ICS Secretary General Peter Hinchliffe. "However, the Durban Climate Change Conference needs to give the International Maritime Organization a clear mandate to continue its vital work to help us deliver further emission reductions through the development of market-based measures."
The shipping industry hopes that governments at the conference will respond positively to the IMO's July agreement to adopt a package of technical measures to reduce CO2 emissions from the shipping industry.
By 2030, these measures are expected to reduce ships' emissions by 25 to 30 percent compared to business as usual. To date, this is the first international agreement containing binding and mandatory measures to reduce CO2 emissions that has been agreed for an entire industrial sector.
Samantha Smith, leader of WWF's Global Climate and Energy Initiative, said, "We are very pleased that the shipping industry acknowledges its responsibility to play its part in further reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With around three percent of the world's total emissions, full participation of the shipping sector will help greatly towards keeping global warming below the two degree Celsius target agreed by governments. Putting a charge on carbon in the global shipping sector can have huge benefits in meeting our climate change objectives."
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http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2011/2011-12-02-01.html
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