A landmark policy developed by members of the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) in April will tax international shippers based on the carbon content of their fuel. The draft policy will be completed by the end of 2025.
It is undeniable that the agreement reached at the 83rd meeting of the IMO Marine Environmental Protection Commission was a compromise – criticized by activists and oil-rich countries. However, it is also undeniable historical. As the organization said, “The IMO Net-Zero framework is the first in the world to combine mandatory emission restrictions and [greenhouse gas] Pricing across the industry. ”
Key measures to approve the draft include:
- The cost of emissions exceeds a threshold that increases carbon intensity every year (based on greenhouse gas emissions per mile and cargo capacity per unit) and costs rise to a threshold beyond $380 tons per metric ton.
- A system that allows vessels to “earn” carbon credits and trade with other vessels. Points can be earned by using low-emission fuels and/or funds that contribute to funds that support low-carbon research, infrastructure, technology transfer and capacity building and help reduce harm to vulnerable countries.
IMO's overall emission reduction strategy was launched in 2018 and updated in 2023, envisioning a 40% reduction in fuel intensity by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions in international transportation around 2050.
Fight for the first ever agreement amidst stark differences
A total of 63 IMO members voted for a new carbon defecation agreement, while 16 objected to 24 abstentions. Opponents include the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates and other major fossil fuel producers, according to Earth.org. Regardless of their votes, all 108 parties in a 1973 transport pollution agreement called Marpol Annex VI (which represents 97% of the world's merchant fleet through tonnage, must comply with any new agreement under it, including the soon added carbon tax.
According to the BBC, the U.S. apparently withdrew from negotiations due to the “redistribution” aspect of the proposed IMO Net-Zero fund. As Reuters reported, the U.S. memorandum sent to the ambassador: “The United States rejects all efforts based on its economic measures based on its vessels. [greenhouse gas] Emission or fuel selection. ”
Although in 2022, the United States has the second largest container port traffic for any country on the planet, almost twice as much as any other country after China – almost all carbon taxes under the new agreement will be assessed by other countries. This is because only about 0.5% of global cargo cargo is provided by U.S. flag ships, meaning ships registered in the U.S.
Under the leadership of the negotiations, a group of small island states and allies worked to include a uniform tax rate equivalent to each ton of carbon dioxide into taxes. Leaders of these vulnerable countries condemn the final draft of compromise that is not enough to satisfy the moment. These include Hilton Kendall, Secretary of Transport, Communication and Information Technology for the Marshall Islands.
“We cannot use it as an option for procurement measures, and wealthy countries have asked us to pay for their technological transitions while abandoning us,” Kendall said in a joint statement from several island countries.. “We fight not only for the economic good of our country, but for the safety of our people and our houses.”
Fixed a hole left in the Paris Agreement
The country-by-country voluntary targets submitted every five years through the Paris Agreement do not include international transportation or international aviation. Given their complex border crossing nature, the two departments were explicitly excluded from the 2015 agreement.
International transportation and aviation both account for 3% of the global annual carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans. Although it may seem moderate, both percentages are rising over time. Large-scale transport and airlines rely on clumsy transport methods away from power supplies, decarbonizing is more challenging than homes or vehicles that already have low or zero carbon technology.
In 2022, the sixth intergovernmental assessment of climate change said that certain model scenarios show that transport carbon dioxide emissions, including road vehicles, as well as trains, transportation and aviation, may grow 16% to 50% by 2050.
The report notes: “Because the lifespan of a vessel is usually 20 years, or even more,” the urgency of implementing measures to reduce emissions is considered high. ”
Peter Newman, professor of sustainability at Curtin University in Australia, is one of the three coordinated lead authors of the transport chapter of the IPCC Working Group III report. In an email, Newman expressed concern about the “minimum commitment to new technologies” in the transportation and aviation sectors.
“Most of the people I respect in international transport space say IMO and ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization] “As little as possible and trying to make it look like it's doing a lot of things. They are not funding R&D in land transport. I don't think their efforts are enough to help avoid a major global climate crisis.”
More than 30 institutions that raise funds for global transport are signatories to the Poseidon principle, which calls for the assessment and disclosure of the financial infrastructure of transport aligned with the adopted climate targets. “The global emissions tax on international transport is a historic event,” Michael Parker, president of the Poseidon Principles, said in a press statement. Parker added that he realized that the draft IMO agreement was “disappointing” and that “it will set a framework and approach that can be established in the process.”
“The first binding emission target for the transport sector is commendable, but not enough to drive the investment required,” the non-profit Global Maritime Forum said in a statement. “There remains uncertainty as future revisions may be needed to ensure the zero emission target is achieved. Governments need to step up efforts to bridge the cost differences between fossils and electronic goods, support the development of required infrastructure and fuel production, and ensure more is made to facilitate the transition to the global South.”
How can transportation become more friendly?
Traditional bunker fuel is the type of most long-distance cargo transportation and is a dense, high-carbon form of oil. Over the past few years, IMO has been cutting aerosol pollution from such fuels. In fact, the restrictions on sulfate emissions that came into effect in 2020 may cause some minor boost to the dramatic ocean warming observed in the past few years, especially in the North Atlantic.
IMO's 2023 reduction strategy calls for “zero or near zero greenhouse gas emission technologies, fuels and/or energy” to account for at least 5% of the energy used in 2030 in international transportation, ideally 10%.
Many studies have been conducted on the low-carbon selection of transport fuels, including biofuels. However, any large-scale biofuel upgrades could put pressure on existing users (such as cars that burn ethanol) or could trigger the expansion of a massive monoculture farm that grows corn and other biofuel crops.
Another major research focus is that ammonia can be produced by hydrogen and nitrogen and compressed into dense liquid forms. Later this year, two parallel efforts in Denmark and Switzerland will launch and test the world's first ammonia-powered seacraft.
Since ammonia is a carbon-free substance that can be produced by renewable energy sources (making it “green ammonia”), ammonia-based transport can be a near-zero process, except for the relatively less pilot fuel required for ignition. However, liquefied ammonia is only about one-third, just like marine gases now used for a small portion of transport, so storage and range will be a challenge – and more complicated by the toxicity and corrosive nature of ammonia. A catalytic converter is also needed to capture nitrogen oxides and oxides of monoxide ejected from the ammonia-powered engine.
“There is still a huge cost gap between fossil fuels and zero-emission fuels, and we need to close that gap,” recke Gunnewijk, who manages the cleaning industry and transportation in the ports of Rotterdam, told the BBC. “So you need carrots and sticks, and in transportation, using sustainable fuel is not that big.”
Meanwhile, many vessels are being modified to use today's fuel more efficiently. Adjustments such as optimizing ship profiles and using onboard wind and solar energy to improve propulsion could reduce emissions by as much as 40%, the IPCC reported. In fact, the average carbon intensity of cargo ships has dropped by 30% to 40% over the past 15 years. Nevertheless, this is not enough to exceed the sharp increase in cargo volume.
There is also a major effort to build a green transport corridor where using zero-emission ships can help attract attention and ambitions. Along these routes, the Clyde Bank Declaration was launched at the 2021 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in 2021, with the latest of 27 signatories in Canada to date (including the United States). The declaration calls for the establishment of six green transport corridors by 2025. A proposed corridor will use renewable sources along the main routes of transporting cars and trucks between South Korea and several European ports to use green methanol fuel.
Jeff Masters contributed to this article.
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