A new year, a new start. Whatever the circumstances and whatever the weather, January always turns the mind to resolutions to improve. Driven by perhaps a little guilt over Christmas overindulgence, regrets about opportunities not taken, or melancholy at initiatives not made, it is always the time to look to the future afresh.
We’ve all resolved to do them. Catch up with old friends: Tick. Make new ones: Tick. Get into better habits: Tick. Eat a little less, exercise more: Double tick. And stick to at least one resolution this year: Triple tick.
Yet after the 12 months we have all faced in 2020, perhaps this is the moment to resolve to do something of longer-lasting impact for all.
My thoughts turned to this in recent weeks, reflecting on the harrowing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on shipping over the last year. But it was also the year that saw a material progress in the debate on climate change.
In fact, 2020 may come to be seen as a tipping point where shipping finally started to embrace the need for real action to cut carbon emissions. Significantly, the International Maritime Organization fleshed out its regulatory framework.
Critical milestone
And, thankfully, it is now no longer a rarity to see shipowners reporting their carbon pollution mitigation plans or publishing environmental, social, and corporate governance reports, although their quality and the underlying actions range from the good to the bad and, in some cases, the downright ugly.
Yet the challenge remains to deliver impactful reductions and accelerate this process each year ahead, with 2021 shaping up to be another critical milestone.
It was a theme addressed over Christmas by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney in the BBC’s annual Reith Lectures, which have come to embody the broadcaster’s public service ethos over the last 60 years.
In the last of his four lectures, Carney turned to how business can help deliver society’s need for effective climate policies that deliver a low-carbon economy swiftly enough to save earth as a habitable environment.
It was not only potent, but passionate and polemical, made all the more arresting as it was from a figure at the heart of the financial establishment. Before his tenure on Threadneedle Street, Carney was head of his home central bank in Canada. And, now, he is the United Nations' Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Finance.
Carney has skin in the game, of course. He is an advisor to alternative asset manager Brookfield, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the UN’s next climate conference COP 26 due to be held in Glasgow in November.
Towards net zero
Central to Carney’s arguments about how business and financial markets can work in tandem with government is the imperative to reach net-zero carbon emissions. To meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature control limit of 1.5C, emissions now need to fall by 8% each year for the next 20 years. Even the best shipping companies are not even close to that.
“If we succeed, the ‘average’ global citizen born today will have a personal carbon budget over their lifetime, equivalent to one eighth of their grandparents,” Carney reflected. "Think of that next time you hear, ‘Okay, boomer’. So it’s important to recognise that net zero isn’t a slogan, it’s an imperative of climate physics.”
The financier had three credible suggestions of how we all can reinforce these efforts.
Firstly, if you work for a company, find out whether it has a plan to transition to net zero.
“If so, great, how can it be made better?,” Carney asked. “And if it doesn’t have a plan, why not? Does management think governments and people are bluffing with their net-zero targets?”
If not. Why not?
Secondly, find out whether your savings or pension pot is being managed towards net zero. If not. Why not?
“Are the people investing your money missing out on major opportunities or are they taking unnecessary climate risks, or do they think that you just don’t care? If you care about the climate, make your money matter,” he said.
And, thirdly, ask what your country can do. Does it have a net-zero plan? And do companies and banks have plans?
Shipping is building momentum towards net zero. The Getting to Zero Coalition now has more than 120 member companies, but how many of those have committed to their own net-zero plans? And in Denmark, the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping — led by Bo Cerup-Simonsen — is getting up to speed.
We all need to make our own resolutions, and now is the moment to make sure our voices are heard.
