GOVERNMENTS and lobbyists alike are gearing up for another fortnight of decarbonisation negotiations at the IMO starting next week.

But with industry eyes still set squarely on the looming 2020 sulphur reduction targets, there is a growing feeling that the ambition to at least halve carbon emissions from shipping by 2050 may be stuck somewhere at the bottom of the industry’s to do list. 

For this week’s podcast, we caught up with Peter Thomson — he is the Fijian diplomat who United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed as his Special Envoy for the Ocean with a mandate to galvanise marine efforts around the UN’s sustainable development goals. 

His view is broadly speaking optimistic, but his agenda is clear.

“I would like to see every element of shipping in the world chipping in on this and that’s easily enough done by some kind of tariff on every company that is involved in shipping. And why shouldn’t they all be part of the solution. They are all part of the problem,” he told the Podcast this week.

Make no mistake — this is a man with the ear of the global political elite, so when he says he wants to see 100% emissions reduction from shipping and wants the industry to pay its fair share via tariffs, then it’s time for shipping to pay attention to the wider debate around blue ocean economics.

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