Context: The International Maritime Organization (IMO) member countries reached a consensus on IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy 2023, to achieve "net-zero GHG emissions by approximately 2050".

About IMO’s Greenhouse Gas Strategy 2023

• The strategy calls for the international shipping industry “to reduce the total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 20%, striving for 30%, by 2030, compared to 2008.”

• It urged the industry “to reduce the total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 70%, striving for 80%, by 2040, compared to 2008.”

• Near-zero emission technologies, fuels, and energy sources should “represent at least 5%, striving for 10%, of the energy used by international shipping by 2030.”

• The strategy says that the carbon intensity of international shipping should decline to reduce CO2 emissions “per transport work,” on average by at least 40 per cent by 2030, compared to 2008 baseline levels.

• It spoke about implementing measures to enable a just transition for seafarers and other maritime workforce “that leaves no one behind.”

Key Facts

• The shipping industry is responsible for 1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually or 3% of global greenhouse emissions.

About International Maritime Organization (IMO)

• The IMO was known as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) until 1982.

• It is a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping.

• It was established in Geneva in 1948, and came into force ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959.

• Headquarters: London, United Kingdom.

• Members: 171 Member States and three Associate Members.

• Its primary purpose is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping and its remit today includes safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical co-operation, maritime security, and the efficiency of shipping.

• The IMO is governed by an assembly of members and is financially administered by a council of members elected from the assembly.

• IMO’s structure: Assembly, Council, Maritime Safety Committee, Marine Environment Protection Committee, Legal Committee, Technical Cooperation Committee, and Secretariat, headed by a Secretary-General.

VISION

• IMO remains committed to reducing GHG emissions from international shipping and, as a matter of urgency, aims to phase them out as soon as possible, while promoting, in the context of this Strategy, a just and equitable transition.