The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has asked the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to set the shipping industry’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction goals by 2018.

Last month, IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) agreed to develop a comprehensive road map to address CO2 emissions from international shipping, with initial CO2 reduction goals to be agreed by the IMO by 2018.

According to ICS, the IMO road map would build on the mandatory CO2 reduction regulations for shipping already adopted by IMO four years before the newly enforced Paris Agreement.

"The IMO data system will inform the development of a mechanism by IMO for ensuring that agreed CO2 reduction commitments are indeed fully met."

The IMO’s existing regulations will also help increase the efficiency of ships built after 2025 by around 30%.

ICS further believes the IMO road map will go much further than the Paris Agreement.

International Chamber of Shipping policy and external relations director Simon Bennett said: “Key to next steps is the mandatory global CO2 data collection system which IMO has now adopted. This will enable any initial CO2 commitments agreed in 2018 to be further refined using the very latest data on ships’ emissions which will become fully available from 2019.

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“But most importantly, the IMO data system will inform the development of a mechanism by IMO for ensuring that agreed CO2 reduction commitments are indeed fully met. This will no doubt include deciding the extent to which technical and operational measures alone might be insufficient to deliver the IMO CO2 reduction commitments that we hope will be initially agreed in 2018.

“But the shipping industry fully recognises that society expects more, and we therefore think it is vital that IMO Member States agree some truly ambitious CO2 reduction commitments by 2018.”

The body also noted that in spite of an increase in maritime trade, the global shipping sector has been able to reduce its total CO2 emissions by more than 10% between 2007 and 2012.