IMO GHG Strategy

The IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy is the framework through which the international shipping industry is charting its response to climate change. International shipping falls outside national emissions targets because ships move between countries, so responsibility for regulating its greenhouse-gas emissions rests with the IMO. The strategy sets out the level of ambition for reducing those emissions, the timeline over which reductions are to be achieved, and the kinds of measures that will be used to get there, giving the whole industry a shared direction against which ships, fuels and technologies can be planned.

The revised strategy strengthened the earlier goals significantly, setting the ambition for international shipping to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by or around 2050. It includes indicative checkpoints for earlier years to keep progress on track and encourages the uptake of zero and near-zero emission fuels and technologies by set dates. Achieving these goals is understood to require a combination of approaches: improving the energy efficiency of ships and their operation, and above all transitioning from fossil fuels to alternative low- and zero-carbon fuels such as green methanol, ammonia, hydrogen and sustainable biofuels, supported by the infrastructure to produce and supply them.

To turn ambition into action, the strategy is backed by concrete measures. Technical and operational instruments already in force (the EEDI and EEXI for design efficiency and the CII for operational carbon intensity) form the short-term measures, while the IMO is developing mid-term measures, including a technical element such as a marine fuel standard to drive down the carbon intensity of the fuels used, and an economic element such as a pricing mechanism for emissions. The strategy is reviewed and updated over time as technology and understanding advance. For shipowners, financiers and fuel suppliers, the IMO GHG Strategy is the signal that shapes long-term investment, since the ships and fuels chosen today must fit a future in which shipping's emissions fall toward zero.