The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has outlined enhanced targets to tackle harmful emissions in the shipping sector by 2050.
The revised IMO Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Strategy includes an enhanced common ambition to reach net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping close to 2050, a commitment to ensure an uptake of alternative zero and near-zero GHG fuels by 2030, as well as indicative check-points for 2030 and 2040.
IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim said: "The adoption of the 2023 IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy is a monumental development for IMO and opens a new chapter towards maritime decarbonization.
"At the same time, it is not the end goal, it is in many ways a starting point for the work that needs to intensify even more over the years and decades ahead of us.
"However, with the Revised Strategy that you have now agreed on, we have a clear direction, a common vision, and ambitious targets to guide us to deliver what the world expects from us."
The IMO is the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for developing global standards for shipping and supporting countries to implement those rules.
Elements of the Strategy are outlined below:
2023 IMO Strategy
The 2023 IMO Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships (the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy) represents the continuation of work by IMO as the appropriate international body to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping.
Vision
The IMO stated that it: "...remains committed to reducing GHG emissions from international shipping and, as a matter of urgency, aims to phase them out as soon as possible, while promoting, in the context of this Strategy, a just and equitable transition."
Levels of ambition
The levels of ambition directing the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy are as follows:
1. Carbon intensity of the ship to decline through further improvement of the energy efficiency for new ships
2. Carbon intensity of international shipping to decline
3. Uptake of zero or near-zero GHG emission technologies, fuels and/or energy sources to increase
4. GHG emissions from international shipping to reach net zero
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