Resolution A.963(23)

IMO POLICIES AND PRACTICES RELATED TO REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM SHIPS

(adopted on 5 December 2003)

THE ASSEMBLY,

RECALLING Article 15(j) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Assembly in relation to regulations and guidelines concerning the prevention and control of marine pollution from ships and other matters concerning the effect of shipping on the marine environment,

RECALLING FURTHER that, in line with Article 212 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS), resolution A.719(17) invited the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) to develop legally binding measures to reduce air pollution from ships through the preparation of a new Annex to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto (MARPOL 73/78),

RECALLING ALSO that, on 26 September 1997, Conference of Parties to MARPOL 73/78 (the Air Pollution Conference) adopted a new Annex VI - Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships to the Convention in order to reduce the contribution by shipping to air pollution,

NOTING that the Air Pollution Conference, by resolution 8 on CO₂ emissions from ships, invited the Organization, in co-operation with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to undertake a study of CO₂ emissions from ships for the purpose of establishing the amount and relative percentages of CO₂ emissions from ships as part of the global inventory of CO₂ emissions,

NOTING ALSO that the Air Pollution Conference invited the MEPC to consider what CO₂ reduction strategies may be feasible in light of the relationship between CO₂ and atmospheric pollutants, especially NO_x, since NO_x emissions may exhibit an inverse relationship to CO₂ reductions,

RECOGNIZING that the most comprehensive assessment so far of the contribution of international shipping to these problems is contained in the IMO study on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships, which was published in June 2000 and was prepared as a follow-up of the Air Pollution Conference resolution 8,

RECOGNIZING FURTHER that the IMO study on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships identifies that ships are estimated to contribute about 1.8 per cent to the world total CO₂ emissions, and documents that emission reductions are feasible through technical and operational measures, as do studies on greenhouse gas (GHG) by Ship and Ocean Foundation of Japan,

BEING AWARE OF the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, which is to achieve stabilization of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,

BEING AWARE ALSO that the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted by the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in December 1997 and has yet to enter into force, states that the countries listed in Annex 1 to the UNFCCC shall pursue limitation or reduction of emissions of GHG from marine bunker fuels, working through IMO (article 2.2),

BEING AWARE ALSO that the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in December 1997 adopted Decision 2, while recalling emissions based upon fuel sold to ships engaged in international transport should not be included in national totals, but reported separately, urging the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) to further elaborate on the inclusion of emissions from international bunker fuels in the overall GHG inventories of Parties to the UNFCCC, noting that the Conference of Parties to UNFCCC has adopted reporting requirements, and has agreed upon Guidelines and Good Practice Guidance concerning methodologies for the calculation of emissions from international bunker fuels,

BEING AWARE ALSO that the SBSTA, at its sixteenth session in June 2002, invited IMO to report on its activities with regard to the consideration of methodological aspects related to the reporting of emissions based upon fuel sold to ships engaged in international transport at the eighteenth session of SBSTA,

BEING CONVINCED that the Organization should take the lead in developing GHG limitation and reduction strategies and mechanisms for international shipping and that in doing so, it should co-operate with the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC,

RECOGNIZING that the projected adverse effects of climate change call for implementation of emission limitation or reduction measures from international shipping as one of the sources of anthropogenic GHG emissions,

HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendations made by the Marine