DESPITE the passionate plea of a coalition of Pacific leaders, the world’s leading shipping organisation has failed to agree to urgently tackle the industry’s impact on climate change. After a two-week meeting in London last month,the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) agreed to cap emissions of sulphur from ships, which are a cause of air and sea pollution, but on greenhouse gases agreed only to some further monitoring and a fresh round of negotiations.
Campaigners across the world and in the Pacific have condemned the IMO’s lack of urgency on the issue. Potential measures to reduce greenhouse gases have been delayed to 2023, which campaigners said was too late. It was just as anticipated, a collision of the Pacific and the shipping world and sparks flew behind closed doors at the UN negotiations to deliver a climate deal for the industry. While the plea by the coalition of ministers and ambassadors from the the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Fiji, Vanuatu, Palau and the Solomon Islands won some support.it did not change the mindset of the 172-member IMO.
Their submission for the industry to make radical emissions cuts to align the sector’s emissions with a global target to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels was supported by France and Belgium and other IMO member states including those from the EU, UK, Canada, Bangladesh, Bahamas, Scandinavia and NZ.
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