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UNFCCC
Must Agree a Mandate for IMO
COP
17 Climate Change Conference:
Joint Statement with Oxfam and WWF
The international shipping industry is firmly committed to reducing its CO2
emissions by 20% by 2020, with significant further reductions thereafter.
However, the next United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 17) needs to
give the International Maritime Organization
(IMO) a clear mandate to continue its vital work to help deliver meaningful CO2
emission reductions by international shipping, including ‘Market Based
Measures’.
The global shipping industry, represented by the International Chamber of
Shipping (ICS), very much hopes that governments at COP 17 will respond
positively to the significant IMO agreement, in July 2011, to adopt a package of
technical measures to reduce shipping’s CO2 emissions (see green box). This is
the first ever international agreement containing
binding and mandatory measures to reduce CO2 emissions that has so far been
agreed for an entire industrial sector.
Most importantly - and without prejudice to what governments might agree at
UNFCCC – the shipping industry believes that IMO is now very well placed to
continue the real
progress it is making on Market Based Measures to help deliver further emissions
reductions. This includes a possible shipping industry environmental
compensation fund with
possible linkages to any ‘Green Fund’ agreed by UNFCCC. This could address
the Kyoto Protocol principle of ‘Common But Differentiated Responsibility’ (CBDR)
by directing the lion’s share of any funds raised from international shipping
to environment
related
projects in developing countries.
It is vital for all governments to understand that in the absence of a global
framework agreed by IMO there is a serious risk of regional or unilateral
measures regulating CO2 emissions
for shipping. This would have a seriously distorting effect on international
shipping markets, but most importantly would be much less effective in
delivering meaningful reductions
in CO2 emissions by the global shipping sector as a whole.
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