Shipping lobby group advises caution on climate targets

An influential shipping industry group has quietly warned shippers to think carefully before they sign up for a new plan to reduce pollution and eventually eliminate their contribution to climate change.  

The International Chamber of Shipping represents four-fifths of the world’s commercial fleet, and in 2021 committed to the Paris Agreement’s target to reduce greenhouse gases down to zero by 2050. “Talk is cheap, action is difficult,” chairman Esben Poulsson said at the time. 

But a confidential document obtained by The Associated Press shows the International Chamber of Shipping advised its national branches in March that member companies should “give careful consideration to the possible implications” before committing to a new plan to reduce maritime emissions. 

Under the plan, shipping companies will declare all their vessels with their emissions, inputting them into a new software tool. That includes pollution starting at the oil well all the way to the engines, said Jean-Marc Bonello, a naval architect at UMAS, a for-profit maritime consultancy launched by experts from University College London, who helped design the tool. Shippers will then have to improve efficiency or use cleaner fuel to reduce their emissions 60% by 2036.