They will decide whether this sector will take climate challenge seriously, meeting the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by setting targets that ensure zero greenhouse gas emissions from the sector by 2050. In a few weeks, countries will meet at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the little-known but highly influential UN agency that regulates international shipping. The breakthrough that will enable greater adoption of these and other planet-friendly strategies isn't technological it's political. Many countries - including mine and others in the Pacific - offer paths forward to accelerate the transition to zero-emissions fuels and a more equitable global economy. Zero emission shipping is not some far-off dream. These rapidly emerging risks illuminate a solution that will help everyone: to survive and continue to deliver global economic stability through trade, we must accelerate the transition to more environmentally friendly shipping technologies, and do so in a way that all countries benefit.
The citizens of the Marshall Islands and many other nations are almost fully dependent on ocean trade we have seen the benefits of shipping innovations, but also are witnessing the existential costs of climate change caused by the sector's burning of dirty fuels as rising seas consume our land and threaten the health and economic security of millions. Today, about 80 percent of everything we eat and use comes to us by sea - an astonishing, often-overlooked indicator of how important shipping is to our global wellbeing. President Kabua says "about 80 percent of everything we eat and use comes to us by sea - an astonishing, often-overlooked indicator of how important shipping is to our global wellbeing." Photo: AFPįew think of the ocean as an epicentre for human ingenuity, but our history and future can be charted by our life on the seas, President David Kabua writes.įrom the extraordinary voyages of my ancestors and other early Pacific Island peoples millennia ago to the trade, multilateralism and security provided by today's container ships and cargo vessels, many of our greatest leaps came from the innovation needed to cross the ocean.
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