Rules agreed to reduce ship emissions

New global regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships over the next 25 years have been agreed by the industry’s regulator, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

The ‘IMO Net Zero Framework’ will require the owners and operators of ships making international voyages to reduce GHG emissions in line with annual targets listed in the regulations or face penalties based on how much they miss the targets by. Ships that reduce emissions quicker than required will be rewarded for adopting the cleaner fuels and technologies that will be needed to achieve the targets.

The new regulations start taking effect in 2028 and will add to ship operating costs and place additional regulatory burdens on carriers but should trigger the long-awaited switch to more sustainable fuels in the shipping industry.

The rules for calculating ship emissions and comparing them to the required targets are astonishingly complex but shippers and forwarders should familiarize themselves with the basic principles as carriers will soon start to incur these costs and may try to recover them from customers in higher rates or new surcharges.

Check out the WTA course on climate change "Reducing Greenhouse Gases in the global supply chain" to better understand how international logistics contributes to climate change and the regulatory measures taken by companies, in collaboration with governments, to mitigate threats of global warming and implement a way forward via international agreements.

James Hookham is a Director of TenTenFifteen, providing guidance and support on international trade and transport to shippers and forwarders around the world. He has been a professional representative of the trade and logistics sector for over 30 years, first as a Deputy Chief Executive of the Freight Transport Association (now Logistics UK) and since 2018 as Secretary General of the Global Shippers Forum, the voice of cargo owners in international supply transport. 

He is a graduate in Environmental Science from the University of Bradford and completed a Masters degree in the safe transport of dangerous goods at the University of Manchester.