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https://theconversation.com/how-petrostates-succeeded-in-watering-down-the-worlds-plan-to-cut-shipping-emissions-254638>
"The UN’s International Maritime Organization has just agreed to start charging
ships for the greenhouse gases they emit. After decades of ineffective
incremental tweaks to shipping emissions, the breakthrough came on April 11 at
a summit in London. It makes shipping the first industry subject to a worldwide
– and legally binding – emissions price.
The positive spin is that getting any sort of deal is a major win for
multilateral climate action, especially considering two strong headwinds.
From within the meeting, there was sustained opposition to ambitious action
from Saudi Arabia and other petrostates, as well as from China and Brazil.
Second, the US had already disengaged from negotiations. Even so, from outside
the meeting, the US administration’s tariff war and explicit threat to
retaliate against states supporting a shipping pricing regime could have
affected talks far more than they did.
But we’re not sure that this agreement can be considered a success. While there
is little traditional climate change denial at the IMO, “mitigation denial” is
alive and kicking. Mitigation denial means making lofty promises, often in line
with scientific evidence, but not adopting concrete measures able to deliver on
these targets. This is exactly what petrostates pushed the IMO to do last week.
Ultimately, the IMO has well and truly failed the most climate vulnerable, by
favouring a more gradual and less certain transition to low-carbon shipping.
It’s even effectively making these countries pay the price."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
