Current:Home > StocksAn Ambitious Global Effort to Cut Shipping Emissions Stalls -消息
An Ambitious Global Effort to Cut Shipping Emissions Stalls
View
Date:2025-04-27 14:37:54
An ambitious, global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions from shipping in half by mid-century stalled as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) failed to approve any specific emission reduction measures at a meeting in London this week.
The IMO, a United Nations agency whose member states cooperate on regulations governing the international shipping industry, agreed in April to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping 50 percent by 2050. The details—along with efforts to reduce the sulfur content in fuel oil, reduce plastic litter from the shipping industry, and steps toward banning the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic—were to be worked out at a meeting of its Marine Environment Protection Committee this week.
The committee considered a cap on ship speeds and other short-term measures that could reduce emissions before 2023, as well as higher efficiency standards for new container ships, but none of those measures was approved.
“We’ve seen no progress on the actual development of measures and lots of procedural wrangling,” said John Maggs, president of the Clean Shipping Coalition, an environmental organization. “We’ve effectively lost a year at a time when we really don’t have much time.”
The inaction comes two weeks after the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report calling for steep, urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Ship Speeds, Fuel Efficiency and Deadlines
Environmental advocates who were at the meeting in London favored placing a cap on ship speeds, which alone could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by roughly one-third, but that plan faced fierce opposition from the shipping industry.
The committee reached a tentative agreement on Thursday that would have required a 40 percent increase in the fuel efficiency of new container ships beginning in 2022, but the agreement was later blocked after pushback from industry and member states including the United States, Brazil, India and Saudi Arabia, Maggs said. The Marine Environmental Protection Committee plans to revisit the measure in May.
“This is about how serious the IMO and IMO member states are,” Maggs said. “A key part of that is moving quickly.” Maggs said. He said the failure to quickly ramp up ship efficiency requirements “makes it look like they are not serious about it.”
IMO delegates also worked fitfully on language about next steps, but in the end the language was weakened from calling for “measures to achieve” further reductions before 2023 to a line merely seeking to “prioritize potential early measures” aimed at that deadline.
While environmental advocates panned the revised wording, IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim praised the agreement in a statement, saying it “sets a clear signal on how to further progress the matter of reduction of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions from ships up to 2023.”
Banning Heavy Fuel Oil in the Arctic
Despite inaction on greenhouse gas reductions, IMO delegates continued to move forward on a potential ban on heavy fuel oil in the Arctic by the end of 2021.
The shipping fuel, a particularly dirty form of oil, poses a significant environmental hazard if spilled. It also emits high levels of nitrogen oxide, a precursor to ozone that can form near the earth’s surface, and black carbon, a short-lived climate pollutant that also adversely affects human health.
The proposal was introduced by delegates from a number of countries, including the United States, in April. The IMO’s Pollution Prevention and Response subcommittee is slated to develop a plan for implementing the ban when it meets in February.
During this week’s meeting, a delegation of Arctic Indigenous leaders and environmental advocates also put pressure on the cruise ship company Carnival Corporation about its fuel, demanding in a petition that Carnival cease burning heavy fuel oil in the Arctic.
“We’re at a critical time to protect what we have left,” Delbert Pungowiyi, president of the Native Village of Savoonga, Alaska, said in a statement. “It’s not just about protecting our own [people’s] survival, it’s about the good of all.”
veryGood! (94351)
Related
- Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
- Remembering David Gilkey: His NPR buddies share stories about their favorite pictures
- What to know about the 5 passengers who were on the Titanic sub
- In the Battle Over the Senate, Both Parties’ Candidates Are Playing to the Middle on Climate Change
- A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
- Brittany Cartwright Reacts to Critical Comments About Her Appearance in Mirror Selfie
- Andy Cohen Reveals the Vanderpump Rules Moment That Shocked Him Most
- One year after Roe v. Wade's reversal, warnings about abortion become reality
- Meta donates $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund
- Worst Case Climate Scenario Might Be (Slightly) Less Dire Than Thought
Ranking
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- Lake Mead reports 6 deaths, 23 rescues and rash of unsafe and unlawful incidents
- Most-Shopped Celeb-Recommended Items This Month: Olivia Culpo, Ashley Graham, Kathy Hilton, and More
- Britney Spears Reunites With Mom Lynne Spears After Conservatorship Battle
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Picking the 'right' sunscreen isn't as important as avoiding these 6 mistakes
- Dead Birds Washing Up by the Thousands Send a Warning About Climate Change
- Connecticut Program Makes Solar Affordable for Low-Income Families
Recommendation
Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
Florida families face confusion after gender-affirming care ban temporarily blocked
After Deadly Floods, West Virginia Created a Resiliency Office. It’s Barely Functioning.
This week on Sunday Morning (June 25)
This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
Worried about your kids' video gaming? Here's how to help them set healthy limits
As ‘Tipping Point’ Nears for Cheap Solar, Doors Open to Low-Income Families
Kangaroo care gets a major endorsement. Here's what it looks like in Ivory Coast