‘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.

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.”