Member states of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) must set stricter 2030 green targets as shipping has a major role to ensure the 1.5 degrees Celsius goals laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement are met, according to ex-American presidential hopeful John Kerry.
He was speaking at Nor-Shipping’s Ocean Leadership Conference in Oslo, Norway, earlier this week and the issue will be up for discussion during the Maritime Environment Protection Committee meeting next week.
Kerry said both the public and private sectors had an unprecedented opportunity to bring the planet back from the brink of disaster.
“The shipping industry touches everything. Shipping has a global responsibility and I know you feel it,” he told 300 delegates at the biennial event.
Unless stricter green shipping targets are met by 2030, there can be no 2050 net zero, Kerry warned.
The US climate envoy told delegates that the 20s decade would be decisive for the planet.
“We can win this fight,” he said. “It requires the same dedication as when the Liberty ships were built, three ships every second day.” This was a reference to American-made ships built on a mass scale during World War 2 to ensure supplies to the Allied efforts on numerous fronts at the height of the war.
“We’re in trouble, not trouble we can’t get out of, science is telling us what to do. The longer we leave it the harder and more expensive it will become. This is as large a crisis as any security threat in the world. It is also the greatest economic opportunity the world has ever known,” Kerry said.
