This is Part 1 in a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, no industry has been governed by a global treaty that sets enforceable decarbonization standards. That could change in October, when more than 100 nations will gather at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London to potentially adopt a “net-zero framework” for the shipping industry. The body finalized the draft of the framework and moved it toward adoption at an April meeting. The shipping sector currently accounts for about 3% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and maritime trade volumes are expected to increase in coming decades. In 2023, the IMO, a United Nations body that regulates shipping, approved a nonbinding strategy to decarbonize “by or around” 2050. The new framework, if it’s adopted and enters into force, will make that vision concrete and binding. Critics, however, say the framework falls short of fulfilling the strategic vision. The framework sets exact emissions targets through 2040, when all large vessels will be required to reduce their greenhouse gas intensity by 65% from a 2008 baseline or pay substantial fees. “That in practice means a fundamentally different energy system for shipping,” Tristan Smith, professor of energy and transport at University College London and a leading expert on shipping decarbonization, told Mongabay. “If the [framework] is adopted, then within 15 years, the entire fleet has to completely change the energy that it uses on board, and the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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