Mark Lutes is senior advisor for global climate policy at WWF. He specialises in UNFCCC climate negotiations, shipping decarbonisation and carbon finance.
If all goes well, on April 11, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will announce that governments have reached a deal to put the global shipping sector on course to net-zero emissions by 2050. Countries must not miss this opportunity to secure this landmark agreement.
Despite the shipping business accounting for around 3% of global emissions, the Paris Agreement on climate change does not contain mechanisms to control planet-heating emissions from shipping or aviation. So this deal has the potential to be a significant moment that finally aligns this critical industry with global climate targets. It would in fact be even stronger than the largely voluntary Paris accord, with mandatory enforcement of targets.
Final steps for global shipping decarbonisation
In July 2023, the IMO reached agreement on a substantially strengthened greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions strategy that contained the targets the IMO is now discussing how to achieve. These included 20% emission reductions from 2008 levels by 2030 – but striving for 30% – and achieving net-zero emissions “by or around, i.e. close to” 2050.
If countries agree on measures to achieve these targets at talks next week, it will require shipping companies to transition to using zero or near-zero fuels or alternative power sources over the next 25 years – essentially a fossil fuel phase-out in the sector. This is both necessary and possible, bringing both environmental benefits and long-term certainty and sustainability to the industry.
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The IMO strategy also calls for shipping companies to strive for 10% zero or near-zero emissions fuels and energy sources for ships by 2030. This wording is important because it excludes liquefied natural gas (LNG) which proponents hail as a ‘transition fuel’ but has modest emission reductions at best and a risk of lock-in.
Energy efficiency measures are also a key part of the proposed strategy. The implementation of a Carbon Intensity Indicator has begun but is now undergoing a review. Successful energy efficiency measures are vital for reducing energy demand and also delivering important environmental co-benefits, including lower speeds which reduce underwater noise and whale strikes.
However, the most important measures for meeting the sector’s net zero targets relate to the energy that powers the ships. This is why negotiations have been focused so far on two measures: a Global Fuel Standard and an economic measure such as a carbon price or levy.
A global fuel standard for ships
A Global Fuel Standard would set a target or limit on the amount of GHG emissions per unit of energy for fuels. There is broad agreement on the need for a standard, but many key technical details remain to be worked out. These details can determine whether the “striving” targets will be met, what fuels and energy sources are incentivised, and whether new fuels will be sustainable and whether full life-cycle (well-to-wake) emissions of fuels are taken into account.
A well-designed standard should provide strong incentives for the development and deployment of zero or near-zero fuels – principally e-fuels produced using renewable energy, and limit the use of LNG and biofuels with high life-cycle emissions. Strong environmental safeguards are also vital to ensure these new fuels do not result in deforestation and other negative land use impacts.
Financing the transition
The most politically challenging issue for negotiators has been the economic measure or carbon price for the shipping sector.
There is broad agreement that revenue is needed for two main purposes – first, to invest in new zero emission fuel sources, especially e-fuels produced using renewable electricity, and to close the price gap between these fuels and other more polluting fuels; and second, to ensure a just transition to a zero-emissions shipping sector, by helping those countries most affected by rising shipping prices resulting from higher-cost fuels, especially prices of food and other essential goods for remote islands and least developed countries. Some also want the funds to be used to support broader activities, like adapting to climate impacts.
The majority of countries participating in the talks, and many shipping sector bodies and environmental observer groups, have supported a broad-based carbon price on shipping emissions, although there are a wide range of views on the amount of the levy, ranging from around $18 to $150 per tonne of CO2e emissions. Other countries, especially some large developing economies that depend on shipping for exports of basic commodities, are strongly opposed to a universal levy, but are open to designing the fuel standard in a way that can generate some amount of revenue.
Agreement on financing mechanism is essential
Whatever the final design, it is vital that the agreed measures generate sufficient and predictable financing to ensure a just transition in the sector and to accelerate the production of zero and near-zero GHG emission fuels, especially e-fuels. Some form of levy is likely to be agreed as part of the Global Fuel Standard mechanism, if not as a stand-alone carbon price.
The IMO’s ability to reach an agreement by April 11 will likely hinge on a resolution of this contentious issue. Success here would not only be a step forward for shipping, but could also send a strong signal about the enduring power of multilateralism. This high-stakes negotiation comes at a very sensitive time for the international community with cooperation seemingly at a low ebb.
In this context, an agreement to decarbonise a key global sector would send a positive signal to countries now developing their national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, and to COP30 in November in Brazil, where key decisions must be made on the next steps for global efforts to combat climate change.
The post Landmark deal to put shipping on course for net-zero is in sight appeared first on Climate Home News.
Landmark deal to put shipping on course for net-zero is in sight
Next week, diplomats from around the world will descend on Yerevan, Armenia, to negotiate a series of decisions under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Between 19 and 30 October, 196 parties will gather to hammer out the precise wording of the dozens of legal texts that make up the decisions under the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD.
This year’s summit is particularly significant, as it marks the halfway point between the agreement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the deadline for achieving its targets.
The CBD has found that countries are currently not on track to meet 22 out of the framework’s 23 targets.
During the fortnight, delegates will also be negotiating decisions relating to the two supplemental protocols to the CBD: the Cartagena Protocol, which covers biosafety; and the Nagoya Protocol, which covers access and benefit-sharing for the use of genetic resources.
(The Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols, which are each governed by a “meeting of the parties”, or “MOP”, have fewer parties than the CBD as a whole, with 173 and 141, respectively.)
Carbon Brief is tracking the progress of countries towards consensus on dozens of negotiating texts using the interactive table below.
The tracker includes texts from the COP, as well as the MOPs for the Cartagena and Nagoya protocols. It also includes draft decisions from the most recent subsidiary body meetings, as these form the starting point for the negotiations in Yerevan.
The CBD has three subsidiary bodies: the subsidiary body on scientific, technical and technological advice (SBSTTA), the subsidiary body on implementation (SBI) and the subsidiary body on article 8(j) and other provisions (SB8J).
SB8J focuses on issues related to the Indigenous peoples and local communities. It was established at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, in 2024.
The first two columns of the interactive tracker list the topic of each agenda item and the relevant body, with subsequent columns including dates, page counts and links to the original documents.
The table is searchable and can be sorted using the arrows in the header.
Areas of disagreement in UN draft texts are denoted by square brackets. Counting the brackets in a particular iteration of a text therefore gives a sense of how far parties are from reaching consensus.
The bracket column is colour-coded, with dark green indicating a low number of brackets and red indicating a high number of brackets remaining.
Texts can also present parties with choices using “options” or alternatives (“alt”), which are counted together in the sixth column of the table.
The key discussions in Yerevan will centre around two agenda items in particular. The first is the global review, which will assess progress towards the GBF and make recommendations for accelerating action.
The second is finance, which can be separated into two parts: resource mobilisation and the financial mechanism. On resource mobilisation, biodiverse global south countries are likely to push for an increased amount of international finance for conservation.
Disagreement over the creation of the financial mechanism led to the suspension of COP16 in Cali in October 2024, as parties failed to find agreement on the mobilisation of finance before the end of the summit.
Global south countries want the establishment of a separate financial mechanism under the control of the CBD; global north countries largely prefer to maintain the existing mechanism, which sits under the Global Environment Facility.
At the resumed session of COP16 in Rome in early 2025, countries agreed on a roadmap that would lead to the establishment of a permanent mechanism.
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The post Interactive: Tracking negotiating texts at the COP17 biodiversity summit appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Interactive: Tracking negotiating texts at the COP17 biodiversity summit
A beacon of love
On an outer island of Fiji, two thousand nautical miles from Sydney, is a shining light of hope and resilience for our troubled world.
The island of Kioa is home to a Tuvaluan community who migrated from their atoll of Vaitupu in the late 1940s. It is a land of warm hearts, big smiles, and deep cultural roots; a place where the sound of a conch still summons the island together, where islanders paddle out to fish in carved outrigger canoes, and healthy happy children walk barefoot to school.
Here, culture is life. Kioans live sustainably through their traditional knowledge and practices. The island is alive with song, dance and the rhythms of a life tied to the tides, the winds, and the seasons.
Facing the future
Greenpeace has been lucky to have a relationship with Kioa for a number of years now, and we are continually learning from this remarkable community.
Last week, as part of our Voyaging Oceania project, we returned to the island. Our purpose was twofold —- to carry messages from the island to leaders gathering in Nadi this week for the Pacific Pre-COP, and to support the Kioa community in their efforts to improve water security for the island.
Unlike Tuvalu itself, with its eight atolls, Kioa is a mountainous, forested and richly fertile island. It will remain habitable far into the future. Kioans did not initially migrate from Vaitupu due to climate change, but the move was prophetic. They now have a lifeboat.
However, even Kioa faces challenges on our rapidly warming planet, in particular when it comes to water. Climate change is shifting once reliable rainfall patterns. On top of this, the island is already feeling the effect of this year’s intensifying El Niño event, which for Fiji means reduced rainfall and prolonged dry spells.
Right now, fresh water has to be carefully rationed, and is only available for a few hours a day. During last week’s visit aboard our campaigning ship Oceania, Greenpeace was privileged to work with the Kioa community on a new solar-powered water distribution project for the island.
Designed and led by the island, the project involves using a solar pump to move water from a reliable source to a storage tank and then using gravity to distribute the water around the village.
It was a lesson in how local knowledge and ingenuity can be the backbone of today’s climate solutions. To build a dam around the source, the local community knew the exact spot where they could gather gravel at low tide to mix with the cement. They took only what was needed, knowing that all resources must be carefully conserved. Kioa has no roads and no machinery, and it was an all-of-island effort to carry the materials up to the project site, including many heavy bags of sand and rock.
Such projects truly bring to life the vision of a resilient, locally-led, fossil fuel free Pacific.
Gallery photos taken by Raeed Ali, Pacific Community Mobiliser at Greenpeace Australia Pacific