When the Paris Agreement failed to specifically mention international aviation and shipping, these industries assured ECO that they would deliver ambitious measures in 2016. With these emissions falling outside of NDCs, these commitments had better be included because if they either were counted as countries, they’d each rank as top ten emitters! Both are projected to double or even treble by 2050, and keeping warming to 1.5ºC is impossible unless they are both on board.
Five months on and these commitments are very shaky. In February, ICAO adopted an efficiency standard which delays action until 2028! In ICAO’s talks last week on a global offsetting scheme, talk of delays and exemptions threatens to fatally undermine the measure’s ambition.
Despite support from industry and most of the governments present, recent IMO negotiations for a fair contributions to global efforts were also rocky. Attempts at progress were thwarted by BRICSA countries, a few other larger developing countries, and the Cook Islands. They argued for waiting until the IMO’s currently non-existent system of MRV for ship emissions start to produce data, at some unknown point in the distant future. ECO isn’t convinced, given the abundance of data available thanks to recent IMO and IPCC studies.
Ask your delegation – are they as ambitious in ICAO and IMO as they are in UNFCCC? With important meetings for both agencies in October, let’s make sure sectors step up and come to Marrakesh as friends, not foes, of the Paris Agreement!