Both shipping and aviation industries have been re-inserted into the draft COP21 climate change agreement text following a meeting of climate negotiators in Bonn last week, having been previously dropped from the text in early October.
The draft agreement text will eventually be hammered into an international climate change agreement in Paris this December. The reference to the shipping industry in the text has re-emerged and gives two options for the industry that both mention the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
This decision was welcomed by the sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) which however also argued that the draft’s language needs to be considerably strengthened if it is to help curb the two sectors’ growing climate impact.
Bill Hemmings, clean shipping and aviation manager at T&E, stated: “International aviation and shipping emissions are the elephants in the room for the UNFCCC. The Paris Agreement must send a clear signal – not a passing reference – to the UN bodies regulating these emissions, ICAO and IMO, that time is up and action is now due.”
“The 2 degree global warming limit becomes next to impossible if Paris gives these sectors a free pass,” he added.
Bill Hemmings concluded: “The latest text is the result of developed and developing countries cooperating on this issue for the first time. There is real hope now that Paris will close these gaping loopholes.”
