Two weeks of talks in London on what measures the global shipping sector should take to reduce its climate impact have failed to make progress.

The European Parliament today called on EU governments to align the 2030 EU climate target with the Paris Agreement and introduce EU measures to cut emissions from aviation and shipping.

The gripping Solar Impulse flight, and the news that Airbus has patented a plane that can fly from Paris to Tokyo in under 3 hours, shows that the aviation industry remains one of the few industries that can ignite our imagination with new ideas.

Regrettably the IMO decided today that business as usual is more important than agreeing that international shipping must make its fair contribution to combatting climate change.

A new CE Delft study has revealed that many recently constructed ships already meet the International Maritime Organisation’s design efficiency standard for 2020, indicating that there is significant room for tightening these standards when the IMO meets next week.

The coming months represent an opportunity for a dialogue between parties on why this wording should be included in the Paris Agreement at COP 21.

In the final years of negotiations for the new climate agreement, it’s still not clear if it will include the fastest growing emissions sources — international aviation and shipping, also known as bunker fuels.

The latest round of climate talks concluded in Lima last month with a sense that some of the basics have been agreed to set the foundations of a global agreement in Paris next year.

For the first time, all shipping companies calling at EU ports will have to measure and publicly report carbon emissions under a law approved by an overwhelming majority of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee today.