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‘Trouble on the High Seas’ – Tristan Smith speaks to ‘i’

2 January 2018

Dr Tristan Smith has been interviewed by ‘i’ on the urgency for the shipping industry to reduce emissions to align with the Paris Agreement’s 2050 targets.

I logo

The article, printed 2nd January 2018, highlights how though we depend on cargo shipping, the industry is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions. The article claims that “if the shipping industry were a country, it would be ranked between Germany and Japan as the sixth-largest contributor to global CO2 emissions”. Because the shipping industry is international, it has no obligation to the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees by 2050. This is the job of the International Maritime Organisation to regulate however, discussions with industry have thus far been been slow.

In his interview Tristan states:

International shipping produces nearly one billion tons of CO2 emissions, which is approximately 2 to 3 percent of total man-made emissions,”
This needs to reduce rapidly if we are to avoid the risks of dangerous climate change at least halving in magnitude between now and 2050.”