Climate change featured heavily at the opening of the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) annual marine environment protection meeting in London today.

IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim called the Paris climate agreement a “landmark achievement” and said that the organisation – which sets shipping regulations, including environmental standards, for UN member states – has “a major role to play in ensuring the Paris agreement translates into a long lasting improvement in people’s lives.”

This is a change of pace for the international shipping industry which, along with aviation, continues to avoid coming under a sector-wide global emissions reduction target.

Contributions from the shipping and aviation industries were notable in their absence from the Paris deal.

This is despite shipping accounting for about three percent of total global carbon emissions (a carbon footprint equal to the size of Germany). And, according to IMO projections, emissions from shipping may increase by 50-250 percent by 2050 from 2012 levels.

But as Lim told the assembled delegates: “The absence of any mention of shipping in the text of the agreement will in no way diminish the strong commitment of the Organisation… to continue its work to address greenhouse gas emissions.”

Lim focused on the Paris agreement throughout his address and reiterated its aspirational goal of limiting global temperature rise below 1.5C.

Emissions Targets

At last year’s meeting, the IMO rejected a call by the Marshall Islands to set specific emissions targets.

Since taking over the secretariat in January of this year, however, Lim has appeared more amenable to setting concrete emissions limits. He told Climate Home that climate change was a “top priority.”

But the industry has its work cut out for it. A study at UCL last year found that the global shipping industry would have to cut its emissions by nearly half by 2030 to stay on track for a 1.5C warming limit.

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