Get Ships Off Fossil Fuels
19.10.2020
Japan and Panama are lobbying to let the shipping industry sink the Paris Agreement – behind closed doors.
We live in a globalized world – just take a look at where your clothes or trainers were made.
But all this stuff doesn’t move around the world by magic – 80% of the tonnage of all global trade is carried by ship.
The problem? There are 60,000 of these huge cargo ships and growing fast, all burning the dirtiest, cheapest type of oil. Together they pump over 1 BILLION tonnes of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere every year (as much as as 271 coal fired power plants!).
That’s more CO2 than all but the top five highest emitting countries in the world – but we never talk about it. Shipping is one of THE biggest drivers of the climate crisis.
Japan, Panama, Norway and industry lobby group the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), are lobbying for shipping’s giant emissions to be allowed to keep growing for another decade, putting the entire Paris Agreement, and a safe climate, at risk.
So who’s in charge? Supposedly the UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO). However instead of serving the public interest, many country delegations to IMO have long since been corruptly controlled by the industry they’re supposed to regulate.
Your government is taking part in the next two rounds of climate talks at IMO, happening October 19-23, and November 16-20. They need to be told what to do by you, not by the industry.
We demand governments at IMO adopt real, enforced CO2 regulation that send shipping emissions downwards immediately, in line with the Paris Agreement.
This approach could prevent the same amount of CO2 entering our atmosphere as shutting 90 coal-fired power plants over the next decade!
After Japan’s disastrous oil spill on Mauritius, our demand is simple: Get Ships Off Fossil Fuels, to prevent repeated negligent fossil fuel spills, protect people’s livelihoods, protect precious marine environments, and to protect our climate from fossil-fuelled breakdown.
TWEET
The Japan embassy @JAPANinUK
The Panama shipping registry @ShipPanama
Norway embassy @NorwayinUK
And your own government
Demand they #SortYourShipOut and #GetShipsOffFossilFuels