[File Photo]

Decarbonization of the shipping industry through a $200 per tonne carbon levy was the centre of the International Maritime Organization’s discussion in London this month.

The complex ownership arrangement of the global shipping industry means that shipping was omitted from the Paris climate agreement in 2015 when the world put in place a global plan to tackle rising temperatures.

Delegations from Fiji and the Pacific played a key role in helping countries agree on a new strategy to bring emissions to net zero “by or around” 2050.

Regional Coordinator at the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, Lavetanalagi Seru says maritime transport is hard to regulate as ships are often owned in one country but registered in another, Fijian climate activists say it must play its part by reducing emissions from ships.

“The shipping if it was considered an economy in terms of how much emission it emits per year, it would be the sixth largest economy and that just shows how much carbon emissions are resulting from shipping.”

Seru says climate-induced disasters are life-threatening for Pacific Island countries.

Meanwhile, Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change Ralph Regenvanu says with category 5 and 6 tropical cyclones hitting the region, the GDPs of small and vulnerable economies will be affected.

“So if you can imagine a single climate event costing us the equivalent of 64% of the GDP, it reflects not only the scale of the climate disaster but also the disproportionate impact it has on very small economies like ours.”

Richer countries and small island states had called for a 50 percent reduction by 2030 and a 96 percent emission cut by 2040.

Ships produce around three percent of global CO2, but countries will now have to reduce this as close as possible to zero by the middle of the century.

Small island states have welcomed the plan, but green groups are furious.

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