Splash: Draft Text Reveals Shipping’s Green Transition Payment Plan
Splash has obtained the contentious draft text regarding how shipping will pay for its green transition, with news that a flat levy is very much off the agenda at the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
A draft legal text on a package of regulations for the implementation of the IMO’s Net Zero Framework failed to achieve consensus in a working group deliberating late into the night at the UN agency’s headquarters in London yesterday. They concern so-called mid-term technical and economic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next 25 years.
However, it gained sufficient majority support for the group to recommend it to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) for formal approval today.
Fifteen countries, led by Saudi Arabia, objected to the package saying it was too ambitious. They are expected to insist on a committee vote, which is rarely resorted to by an organisation with a long-standing commitment to multilateralism and a spirit of compromise.
Six Pacific small island developing states, led by the Marshall Islands, also expressed deep disappointment and stated in unison that they could not accept the package.
Nonetheless, a large number of delegations, many of whom have participated in the group’s work for years, are expected to urge the committee’s approval.
Approval would automatically lead to the new regulations being circulated as draft amendments to Annex VI of the Marine Pollution (MARPOL) Convention, covering air pollution, for formal adoption at an extraordinary session of the committee in October, when the date of international entry into force would also be decided. The Net Zero Framework is meant to apply to international shipping for vessels of 5,000 gt or above.
Addressing the group last night, IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez reminded delegates that the package was “only one step on our journey to 2050”. Much more work was needed, he said.
The new MARPOL regulations do not include a universal levy, even though this had gained very substantive support by over 60 countries prior to the consolidation of the current draft legal text. They stipulate a two-tier approach to achieving the reduction of global greenhouse gas fuel intensity (GFI) and set indicative base and direct compliance targets, expressed in percentages to be gradually met on a progressive time scale.
On the initiative of Egypt, the group agreed to include a regulation requiring the committee to address the “disproportionately negative Impacts on food security,” particularly on countries exposed to food insecurity, and to keep the potential impacts “under continuous review”.
Splash will be bringing readers an update on Monday on what was agreed in the final hours of the 83rd MEPC, a meeting that also made headlines for the no-show from the US delegation, as well as the creation of the world’s largest emissions control area.