IMO's Actions on Climate Change

International Maritime Organization (IMO) is at the UN climate change conference in Bonn, Germany (17-27 June), where governments are meeting to work towards significantly accelerating the pace of climate action.

The UN body is reporting to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA 50) on the latest and ongoing work to implement the Initial IMO Strategy on reduction of GHG emissions from ships.

The strategy sets out a vision confirming IMO's commitment to reducing GHG emissions from international shipping and, as a matter of urgency, to phasing them out as soon as possible in this century.

Specifically, IMO has highlighted the achievements of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 74), which approved amendments to strengthen existing mandatory requirements for new ships to be more energy efficient; initiated the Fourth IMO GHG Study; adopted a resolution encouraging voluntary cooperation between the port and shipping sectors to reduce emissions from shipping; and, importantly, approved a procedure for the assessment of impacts on States of new measures proposed.

Capacity-building and technology transfer feature heavily in IMO's work, including the continued successful execution of important capacity-building projects, the GEF-UNDP-IMO Global Maritime Energy Efficiency Partnerships (GloMEEP) and the European Union-IMO GMN (Global Maritime Technology Cooperation Centres Network).

An international project to support the initial IMO GHG strategy has been launched - the GreenVoyage-2050 project, a collaboration between IMO and the Government of Norway.