UK in breach of legal obligations on international shipping

Background

Commissioned by Transport & Environment, this report details the UK’s legal obligation to act on greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by the international maritime sector. The focus is on the UK, beyond the framework of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). 

Currently, the UK is considering reducing the impact of domestic shipping emissions, while ignoring those produced by international shipping – a far greater problem. The UK believes the latter falls under the remit of the IMO, and is therefore waiting for its lead. 

Under the Paris Agreement, the UK is obliged to meet its legally binding target of keeping global average temperature rises to well below 2ºC. But without tackling international shipping, the UK will be unable to stay within this limit. 

The scale of the problem

• Domestic shipping accounts for 5% of the UK’s domestic transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, or 5.2Mt of CO2 emissions. International shipping accounts for 6.0Mt CO2 (at 2020 levels and including 50% of operational emissions on all journeys to and from the UK). Note that this was a significant decrease on 2019 levels due to the pandemic. 
• In 2019, domestic shipping accounted for 5.9Mt of CO2 while international shipping was responsible for 7.3Mt of CO2. 
• The regulations tackling shipping emissions currently agreed in the IMO are consistent with a rise of 3ºC or more. 

What’s covered in the report?

Our research

1. Looks at the combined obligations of the UK’s Climate Change Act (via the addition of shipping into the UK’s Carbon Budgets), the Paris Agreement and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), considering the relationship between these and regulations on the emissions of GHGs agreed at the IMO.
2. Considers what obligations these regulations place on the UK government in terms of tackling the emissions of international as well as domestic shipping.
3. Determines that the Paris Agreement and UNCLOS require the UK to reduce maritime emissions. If the IMO introduces regulations to reduce emissions, then the UK would not have an obligation to act. But if the IMO does not, then the UK must take action. 
4. Concludes that, provided a number of important legal and enforcement considerations are respected and built into the design of any policy measure, there are numerous ways for the UK to take national action.

Read the full report below.