Reducing shipping’s climate impact

A shipping boat traveling through the ocean.

Shipping has long been the lifeblood of global commerce. This year, the sector stands at a crossroads. As the world's sixth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, shipping faces the urgent challenge to phase out its emissions while ensuring a fair transition to a more sustainable future.

This transformation must safeguard communities and the environment, while securing the industry’s long-term prosperity. Time is running out to tackle the growing impacts of climate change, particularly for the shipping sector whose greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase between 90% and 130% by 2050 compared to 2008.

Member States at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have the once-in-a-generation opportunity to make shipping the leading sector addressing climate change. By adopting a basket of technical and economic measures – including a global fuel standard, a contribution-based greenhouse gas pricing mechanism, and a revenue disbursement mechanism – the IMO could steer global shipping toward a just and equitable energy transition.

Building on the IMO’s commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the proper design of these measures will define their success. They should account for the full lifecycle of marine fuels and provide broader data access and transparency of global shipping emissions. To maximize efficiency and fairness, implementing these measures would benefit from relying on existing climate finance structures to appropriately disburse revenues from a greenhouse gas pricing mechanism.  

Incorporating participatory justice into how these decisions are made will be critical as Member States finalize the measures’ design. This will help create lasting climate solutions for communities worldwide – especially those highly vulnerable to negative climate impacts – and for the maritime sector.

EDF is committed to making the IMO’s measures a success to meet shipping’s interim and long-term targets and to make the sector’s transition away from fossil fuels as efficient and fair as possible. We bring relevant scientific knowledge and research to the IMO and serve as a trusted partner and advisor to Member States and industry. We also work with industry partners to ensure their projects are scientifically sound and minimize the impacts of marine fuels on the climate, human health and the environment.