UN Shipping Body Rejects EU Climate Initiative

Head of UN shipping body accused of “siding” with countries obstructing climate pact after penning warning against unilateral action to EU chiefs

The UN’s shipping chief has attacked European efforts to impose regional controls on the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions in a letter to leaders in Brussels.

EU lawmakers are debating whether the bloc should include carbon pollution from the maritime sector under its emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Last month the European Parliament said shipping emissions should be mopped up by the ETS from 2023 if the UN failed to agree on carbon reduction plans by 2021.

Kitack Lim, secretary general of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said any attempt by the EU to impose new regulations risked “undermining” a climate deal for shipping.
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Faig Abbasov, clean shipping officer at Brussels-based clean transport group Transport and Environment, said Lim’s intervention is likely to raise further questions over the UN’s ability and desire to deliver a climate deal for shipping.

“It’s very puzzling to see the head of the IMO condemning the European Parliament, which has the direct legitimacy of European citizens, for trying to help solve one of shipping’s biggest challenges: its ever-increasing contribution to climate change,” he said.

“Mr Lim has never written to those countries that have consistently blocked any progress on controlling ships’ emissions for decades; it seems he is siding with them now.”

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