Steady progress on climate regulation at IMO meeting

There was steady progress towards revising the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) greenhouse gas (GHG) strategy at Marine Environment Protection Committee 79 (MEPC 79), with no concrete shipping decarbonisation target adopted but support for eliminating the industry’s emissions by 2050 and for setting interim targets to achieve this goal.

While the IMO’s exiting target only aims to only halve emissions from ships by 2050, negotiations are set to continue in a technical working group in spring 2023 (ISWG-GHG-14) and to conclude at MEPC 80 in July 2023.

At MEPC 79, IMO member nations pushed forward in the development of proposals, which include a GHG levy or feebate mechanism, a GHG fuel standard, emissions trading, and a funding/reward system tied to a specific benchmark.