“Just about every government that spoke highlighted the critical importance of R&D, and a large number of governments, probably representing the majority of the world’s tonnage, supported the concept of an IMO supervised Fund, financed by industry,” commented Simon Bennett, deputy secretary general of the ICS.
“But there are many other States at IMO who we still need to persuade,” he added, “and we’ll work hard to address their legitimate questions.”
“We recognise the unprecedented nature of our proposal, but unless IMO is willing to take forward the industry’s offer of $5bn to accelerate R&D within the IMO regulatory framework, it’s really difficult to see how the industry can make IMO’s 2050 target,” Bennett concluded. “We need speed and scale to meet the climate crisis.”
ICS was one of the co-sponsors of the proposal to set up a fund to help identify and develop new technologies needed to allow commercially viable zero-carbon ships to begin operations as early as in the 2030s – along with Bimco, CLIA, Intercargo, Interferry, Intertanko, IPTA and the World Shipping Council.
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