NDC ASPECTS' contribution on the 82nd session of IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee

At the end of September 2024, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will open the 82nd session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC). Within a crowded agenda, one dedicated item aims to prepare the terms of reference of the Fifth IMO GHG Study to be approved by the next MEPC 83 in March 2025. This study is a key scientific reference in the maritime community and will aim to "inform the review process of the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy" (MEPC 82/7/3).

OECD along with NDC ASPECTS' partner IDDRI collectively submitted a document MEPC 82/7/8 called "Preparations for the Fifth IMO GHG Study: incorporating structural uncertainties in global production and trade patterns and impacts on maritime emissions" (attached below) which invites the Committee "to include [...] an explicit note to further analyse the relationship between maritime emissions and the nature of traded goods (energy and non-energy), as well as the change in trading relations and distances."

This submission is based on a scientific policy dialogue organised by IDDRI with the support of UCL on this question, which gathered key maritime experts from ITF-OECD, UCL/UMAS, Tsinghua University, E3 Modelling/Ricardo, Tyndall Centre/University of Manchester and IDDRI/SciencesPo. A recent publication of NDC ASPECTS illustrating these structural uncertainties and their possible impacts on the maritime sector informed the policy dialogue.

The publication can be found here: https://www.ndc-aspects.eu/sites/default/files/2024-07/NDCAspects_D2.3_Chapter7_InternationalMaritime.pdf