IMO WE’RE WATCHING YOU

It’s good to keep an eye on what the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is doing. It’s even better to have eight unblinking eyes outside the IMO witnessing the delegates arrive to discuss Green House Gas (GHG) emissions at the 14th session of the ‘Intersessional Working Group on the Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships’.

I wonder if the GHG group has made any sea worthy decisions on how to reduce shipping emissions? Probably not because anything that will affect the bottom line of the shipping industry isn’t on deck – despite the enormous rise in profits the industry has seen.

Perhaps our gentle reminder from the Red Rebels will help them ponder their duty to the environment. We’ll be visiting the IMO again later this year to remind them again. In the meantime here’s a reminder of how we feel about the IMO.

The IMO is unfit for purpose

The IMO is clearly unfit for purpose. It only acts on behalf of the shipping industry and rarely considers the environment. It must halve shipping emissions now. Add to this the IMO’s continued backing of the fossil fuel industry, by not taxing shipping fuel and allowing the dirty fossil fuel byproduct HFO to be burned at sea, plus its lack of regulation of hazardous petrochemical shipping, and the list of IMO misdeeds and wrong directions begins to get very long indeed. Given this ever expanding list isn’t it time the environmental remit of the IMO is governed by another, better, UN agency?  Life is too important to be squandered by inept bureaucracy.

Ocean Rebellion demands:
The UN must form a new, transparent, and representative body to govern the Ocean for the benefit of ALL life. This new body must have the restoration and replenishment of the Ocean as its only measure of success. It should replace corporate power with people power. And it should represent the many forms of marine life who actually make the ocean a home.

Photos: bibipics2016