BE EXTRAORDINARY, CONSUME LESS, SHIP LESS AND POLLUTE LESS
17.01.2026
⬆️ Inside and out the UN International Marine Organisation is totally screwed by the influence of shipping, oil and gas lobbyists.
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It’s extraordinary that, after extraordinary meetings to discuss the International Maritime Organisation (UN IMO) ’net zero framework’, which contains a carbon tax of shipping, the UN IMO is having another extraordinary meeting at the end of April to do exactly the same.
What isn’t extraordinary is how the Trump administration bullied (with the support of Russia and Saudi Arabia) smaller nation states with the threat of tariffs. Ensuring their gas and oil continues to flow into ships, their pollution continues to cause health issues, and their spills continue to destroy marine life. And, because gas and oil transport is 40% of shipping, their ships continue to choke the seas.
Het lot van de oceaan hangt van ons allemaal af.
Onze interventies zijn afhankelijk van uw steun.
⬆️ Watch Ocean Rebellion decorate windows at the UN IMO while delegates sip wine and eat canapés.
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Last year we paid a visit to the extraordinary Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting at the UN IMO, the UN body responsible for Ocean protection, shipping and seafarer welfare. The UN IMO were hoping to find a consensus for their net zero framework. The beginning of the end for fossil fuel powered shipping? Not at all, given the proposed (watered down) net zero network, scuppered by Trump and his cronies, was already fundamentally flawed. In the agreement there was no requirement to remove heavy fuel oil or any other fossil or gas based energy from shipping. It only contained a vague plan to phase out greenhouse gas emissions.
Shipping is responsible for 5% of green house gas emissions already (double that of aviation). It looks like that will increase to 10% if nothing happens.
shipping’s responsible for 5% of greenhouse gas emissions. soon it’ll be 10%
Currently the shipping, oil and gas industries are promoting what they call ’the future of shipping’. This ‘future’ is Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Another fossil fuel and one that leaks methane throughout its production and use. Methane is 20 times more climate warming in the near term than heavy fuel oil. And LNG has been linked to an increase in cancer wherever it’s produced. That means no reduction in emissions – just a change in the type of pollution. Sounds like the shipping, oil and gas industries are lying to protect their profits.
The most extraordinary thing about the extraordinary MEPC meeting is why it isn’t discussing how we reduce shipping. If we consume less shipping will be reduced – 95% of everything we buy travels in a cargo ship. And reducing our reliance on fossil fuels will reduce shipping – fossil fuels amount to a whopping 40% of all shipping. And local production reduces shipping too, it also creates local jobs – it’s a win, win.
It’s time to stop listening to cretinous calls from oversized toddlers to ‘drill baby drill’, and start making grown up plans for the future of shipping.
Let’s be extraordinary, let’s consume less, ship less and pollute less.