Climate objectives reachable
Shipping has done its ecological homework; the industry expects its measures to bring success by 2050 – without the demand downturn caused by the pandemic. The next milestone, an emissions-free ship, may be reality by 2030 – with the IMRB’s support.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has published its fourth ‘Greenhouse Gas Study’, which establishes that the international shipping industry contributed around 2% to global CO2 emissions in 2018. Many industry representatives have called the results encouraging, as the data confirms that deepsea shipping can attain the goal of reducing emissions by 50% by 2050 under its own steam.
The IMO’s projections include continued global growth in container volumes. The study predicts that the shipping industry’s CO2 emissions in 2050 will be around 10–30% higher than in 2008, the base year chosen. Varying economic and energy consumption scenarios account for the range. Lars Robert Pedersen, the deputy secretary general of Bimco, underlined the fact that the demand scenarios used are realistic and conform to those drawn on in other recent studies, including one released recently by the classification society DNV GL.
In the meantime, assumptions have even predicted lower growth, as the ongoing impact of attempts to contain the outbreak of Covid-19 have not yet been included in the projections so far.
Increase R & D efforts
The shipping industry nevertheless needs to see greater research and development efforts concerning the commercial exploitation of sustainable and emissions-free technologies. The International Maritime Research and Development Board (IMRB) is set to fill this gap. It wants to collect around USD 5 billion to this end in ten years (see also page 14 of ITJ 5-6 / 2020).
Bimco’s Pedersen has his eye trained firmly on future research goals too. “I believe that an emissions-free ship is a realistic goal that can be attained by the end of this decade.”
