The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) told the United Nation’s climate change meeting this week that it is targeting zero emission shipping in the later half of this century.
ICS’s director of policy and external relations Simon Bennett, who represented the global shipowner’s association at the Bonn gathering, said: “We are confident this will be achievable with alternative fuels and new propulsion technologies.”
As an initial target he said, based on a recent Japanese proposal at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), emissions could be cut in half in the next 30 years.
“Japan has set out in detail to IMO how a 50 percent total cut by 2060 might be achieved. In view of projections for future trade growth, an objective in this range, while still incredibly ambitious, therefore seems more realistic,” Bennett commented.
In Bonn he urged the IMO to set a concrete emissions reduction target at the upcoming Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting planned for April next year.
