After the previous three years, just about everybody on Earth now is aware of what the UN WHO (World Well being Group) is, even when some individuals have a really odd thought of what it does. Lots fewer individuals know what one other two UN companies, the IMO and ICAO, are and do. And we should always, as a result of their roles are crucial to local weather motion. However one of many alphabetic organizations isn’t rising to the duty, whereas the opposite has simply made some severe strides.
Let’s begin with what the acronyms stand for. The IMO is the International Maritime Organization. It’s the “international standard-setting authority for the protection, safety and environmental efficiency of worldwide delivery. Its fundamental position is to create a regulatory framework for the delivery trade that’s honest and efficient, universally adopted and universally carried out.”
The ICAO is the International Civil Aviation Organization. It was “established to assist international locations share their skies to their mutual profit. ICAO assists the 193 Contracting States to the Chicago Conference as they develop and undertake requirements, practices, and insurance policies for worldwide civilian flight. Business and civil society teams, along with related multilateral organizations, contribute importantly to those ICAO outcomes as ‘Invited Organizations’.”
In apply, they function in fairly comparable manners. They collect collectively nationwide, trade, and related stakeholders, they kind committees and dealing teams, they run workshops and conferences, they usually hammer out agreements on requirements, security, laws, and issues like local weather targets. However the tone is fairly completely different between the 2, isn’t it?
Anything of their About pages value mentioning? Nicely, there’s this from the IMO:
“As a part of the United Nations household, IMO is actively working in the direction of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth and the related SDGs [sustainable development goals]. Certainly, a lot of the parts of the 2030 Agenda will solely be realized with a sustainable transport sector supporting world commerce and facilitating international economic system. IMO’s Technical Cooperation Committee has formally authorised linkages between the Group’s technical help work and the SDGs. Whereas the oceans purpose is central to IMO, points of the Group’s work might be linked to all particular person SDGs.”
SDG 13, after all, is local weather motion.
What concerning the ICAO About web page? Something on sustainable growth? Something on local weather change? Nope. Crickets.
The IMO has a way more action-oriented approach of articulating its imaginative and prescient and objective, and fronts as much as sustainable growth, together with local weather motion, immediately. The ICAO has a way more passive approach of describing its position, and doesn’t hassle to say something a lot besides serving to carry the glory that’s civil aviation to each nook of the world. It’s unclear if both is overstating or understating its authority and affect.
Because the two industries are each local weather change emission issues of the identical order of magnitude, and are each thought of hard-to-abate sectors, you’d suppose that maybe, simply maybe, they’d place equal weight upon the matter. Till lately, that was true. Their final updates, from pre-COVID, had been uninspiring.
What triggered this small digression into UN alphabet companies which might be barely recognized exterior of their industries? Nicely, the IMO has a working group referred to as the Marine Setting Safety Committee (MEPC). It simply had its eightieth session, MEPC 80, on 3-7 July 2023, at its headquarters in London, England. Bond aficionados would doubtless acknowledge it, because it’s simply up the river from MI6 headquarters.
The MEPC, unsurprisingly, has the local weather motion file for the IMO. And in contrast to the final time they supplied an replace on maritime delivery and local weather change, they really had some good outcomes out of this one. What are the biggies? For that, let’s flip to the UMAS. One other acronym? Sure, it stands for College Maritime Advisory Providers. It’s the consultancy arm that’s a part of the College School London (UCL) Vitality Institute. It supplied a helpful FAQ on MEPC 80’s results, which I’ll crib from liberally.
“When it comes to a discount pathway the technique units expectations on the sector, and certainly on the event of future coverage measures, to try for 30% GHG reductions by 2030, 80% GHG reductions by 2040, on 2008 ranges, and an total stage of ambition of reaching net-zero emissions as near 2050 as potential.”
That’s an enormous step up, and as with many UN COP conferences, tiny international locations, particularly low-lying Pacific nations liable to disappearing in a warmer world, did a bunch of heavy lifting to disgrace international attendees into doing greater than they’d in 2018. It’s potential that the string of warmth information that had been damaged daily globally throughout the occasion had one thing to do with it as nicely.
There’s some even higher information in there. That’s GHGs, not simply carbon dioxide (CO2). They’re explicitly together with methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N20) within the targets. The final two have a lot larger international warming potentials than carbon dioxide, and are missing-in-action in carbon pricing options, if not social value of carbon calculations, in lots of international locations. And people are well-to-wake emissions, not simply aboard-ship emissions. That’s going to frost the shorts of the worldwide methanol and ammonia industries, which have clearly been angling to promote loads of their unabated merchandise to the trade with a promise to wash it up later.
So with all the excellent news, does this imply that these objectives are aligned with heating of just one.5° Celsius. No, no they aren’t. Nonetheless nicely off that requirement. Personally, I’ve given up on 1.5° in any occasion, so a hard-to-abate sector I spend loads of time getting good motion towards local weather motion for the primary time is a win in my books.
There’s loads of low-hanging fruit in maritime emissions reductions. Numerous the 2030 targets might be met with in-hand effectivity measures, together with simply slowing down. A few of it may be met with biodiesel. Some extra of it may be met with electrification, though the UMAS and UCL Vitality Institute apparently don’t know that batteries exist but. In addition they suppose that ammonia created from inexperienced hydrogen is the popular selection for low-carbon delivery fuels, so clearly they’ve some challenges with the fundamentals of physics, economics, and operational security. No one is ideal, and it’s not like they’re alone of their head-scratching perspective on each inexperienced hydrogen-derived fuels and ammonia particularly.
Are these targets binding? No, not an opportunity. However the IMO is influential, and this broad settlement amongst stakeholders will drive nationwide and regional laws world wide. Mainly, the trade, international locations, and delivery trade have stood up and stated, “that is what we are able to do and what we wish to do.” Now it’s as much as international locations and financial organizations just like the EU to drive them to do it.
There are a bunch of labor objects round interim measures and affect assessments that got here out of this that can begin to lead to extra particulars within the subsequent three or 4 years. And the MEPC is assembly once more in 2028 to work on the subsequent spherical of those, one thing that can doubtless strengthen them.
Oh, and the MEPC outcomes additionally embrace language a couple of simply and equitable transition, which interprets into at the least a need to help the worldwide south, which hasn’t and isn’t inflicting international warming for probably the most half, however is seeing large impacts from it.
So, excellent news. Not good information. Not binding commitments. Not aligned with 1.5°. However a lot better than even was anticipated from early days on the occasion, the place the day by day studies prompt one thing as dangerous because the final COP in Glasgow was underway. As famous, a bunch of sinking nations compelled the assembled group to step up. I’m certain that there have been particular person heroes as nicely, individuals who had been integral to forcing the reluctant group to consensus on firmer efforts.
And so, to the ICAO. Has the ICAO stepped up the way in which that the IMO simply did? No, not but.
ICAO graphic of aspiration to proceed to be as huge a local weather change downside as they’re right this moment by way of 2050
They’re nonetheless rocking their very feeble 2019 aspirational objectives of “2% annual gasoline effectivity enchancment by way of 2050 and carbon impartial progress from 2020 onwards.”
What does that translate to? Nicely, it interprets to the trade, which is chargeable for about 5% of worldwide warming emissions, saying that it’s not going to cease doing that or cut back it in any approach, however as a substitute they’ll develop quickly, however all the brand new flights will probably be lined. Nicely, that’s truly too sturdy a approach to put it. What they’re truly saying is that they’ll develop as quickly as potential, and have an aspiration to keep up the identical large emissions.
The ICAO has established the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Yeah, offsetting. The world is rapidly realizing that offsetting has been a really poor answer, though it’s nonetheless key to loads of 2050 internet zero claims.
Underwhelming.
Projection of aviation gasoline demand by kind by way of 2100, chart by Michael Barnard, Chief Strategist, TFIE Technique Inc.
I’ve executed a projection by way of 2100 of a state of affairs I believe is extra prone to occur in aviation. It’s lots much less progress, and batteries and biofuels for the win, for my part. Much more batteries will probably be on much more planes in hybrid and auxiliary energy fashions within the coming years, and three,000 kilometers of vary on batteries alone is probably going viable within the late 2030s. There are loads of electrical aerospace startups, together with FLIMAX, which I’m on the advisory board of, and there are loads of biofuels flowing into plane already. As I famous lately when speaking concerning the many pathways to biofuels, Neste simply turned on one other 1.3 million tons of biofuel manufacturing in Singapore, with 1,000,000 of these tons dedicated to SAF biofuels for plane flying out of Changi.
However the ICAO isn’t serving to the trade get there. In contrast to the maritime trade, the aviation trade hasn’t stood as much as be counted on the local weather motion file. That will probably be an issue for them until they modify that rapidly.
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