The International Maritime Organization (IMO) continues to make strides in its mission to decarbonize the global shipping industry, with discussions this week focusing on implementing both short and mid-term measures to achieve its 2050 zero-emissions target.
Speaking from the IMO headquarters Darwin Telemaque, Manager of the Antigua and Barbuda Port Authority, provided insights into the ongoing negotiations that aim to transform the maritime sector’s environmental footprint.
“The IMO has a mandate to strip shipping of all the use of fossil fuels from shipping, and they would like to do that by 2050,” Telemaque explained. “In the meantime, what the IMO is saying is, in order to achieve the 2050 objective, we want to start now and put in some mid-term and short-term measures to actually ensure that there are steps taken that would hasten the movement towards decarbonization.”
According to Telemaque, the past two days of discussions centered on the carbon intensity index measurement, while earlier sessions of the intersectional working group focused on establishing definitions that will form the foundation for next week’s critical negotiations.
“When the real decision about what fuels, what would be the intensity factor that the world is going to be prepared to allow for a mix of fuels, whether it be green all the way, or whether there is some level of carbon in it,” he noted, highlighting the complexity of the discussions.
A key component of the strategy involves implementing a sliding scale for carbon reduction in fuels. “There’s discussions about what percentage of carbon should exist over a period of time. So in other words, there should be a sliding scale where the volume of carbon used in one of the fuels would be reduced between 2027 and 2029, and then 2029 to 2030 would have a lower number,” Telemaque said.
However significant challenges remain in the transition to green shipping. Telemaque pointed out that alternative fuels are not yet available in sufficient quantities to meet global demand.
“Key to that would be the availability of the right fuels. Now the right fuels do not exist right now in quantities that all ships in the world could get them. They’re not available on that scale,” he said.
To address this gap, the IMO is exploring revenue generation mechanisms to fund research and development initiatives for new fuel technologies. “The other thing we’re discussing at the IMO, consequently, is how does the IMO generate enough revenue that could be used for research and development in designing the new types of fuels, so that as you’re telling ships to transform, to decarbonize, that you also have enough fuels, as a ship makes this transition, that they could get them,” Telemaque added.
