Maritime Executive: How the IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator could halve shipping’s climate emissions
John Maggs from the Clean Shipping Coalition writes on the need for a global fuel standard and levy.
The international shipping sector provides an outsized and growing contribution to the climate crisis. Slower, more efficient ships can help slash climate emissions, but this will not happen without ambitious regulation.
Fortunately, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) current revision of the rules around its Carbon Intensity Indicator, a metric for measuring and regulating ships’ carbon emissions provides such an opportunity. Governments are consulting and reviewing evidence on barriers to efficiency and potential solutions, with a final decision on improving the indicator due by January 1 2026.
If properly designed, these new rules could address almost half of shipping’s climate impacts and deliver massive ocean health co-benefits. But the outcome is far from certain.
