The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has launched a report to endorse phasing-out CO₂ emissions from the international shipping.
This is in regards to the recent adoption of said policy by the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee adopted the Initial Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships in April 2018.
This is a historic agreement which the global industry, as represented by ICS, fully supports.
The report is titled “Reducing CO₂ Emissions to Zero”.  It explains what the high levels of ambition agreed by IMO Member States could mean for international shipping.
These targets include an improvement of 40% as an average across the fleet compared to 2008.  Also, the industry has to cut 50% of greenhouse emissions by 2050.  This will be regardless of future trade growth.
The publication also explores possibilities for the development of zero CO₂ fuels.  It will almost certainly be required if a 50% total cut in GHG emissions is going to be delivered before 2050.  Also, the report is investigating policy options for short and medium term regulatory measures.
The report sets out ICS’s firm opposition to the concept of mandatory operational efficiency indexing of individual ships as a possible candidate measure for CO₂ reduction.  This, ICS argues, would lead to serious market distortion.
ICS also explains why the EU needs to align its regional system for collecting CO₂ data from ships with the global system established by IMO.
 
Download full report here.