National plans to support international shipping decarbonisation: insights from the UK experience

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has set out a proposed Net Zero Framework aimed at reducing greenhouse gases emissions from international shipping. However, even if the Net Zero Framework is adopted, the IMO’s policies will be insufficient to meet its own 2030 global emission reduction targets. This creates an ambition gap that requires complementary regional and national action, though such measures raise challenges around duplication, efficiency and coordination. This article assesses the scope, ambition and policies of a national scale strategy developed by the UK Government, and its interactions with European Union and IMO policies. The article illustrates that the UK has not yet put in place adequate interventions to complement IMO policies in line with the global 2030 targets. It has, however, made improvements in the complicated and contested aspect of international shipping emissions accounting, which could be replicated elsewhere. It has also set a 2030 target to reduce domestic shipping emissions by 30% from 2008 levels, but this target needs to be both higher, to reflect the IMO’s “just and equitable transition” principle, and broader, to include the UK’s share of international shipping emissions, building on its own improvements regarding emission accounting. Incorporating the UK’s approach into the IMO’s guidance on National Action Plans and updating IMO accounting methodologies in line with the more accurate UK approach, could bolster other nations’ efforts to reduce shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions. This would support faster and more comprehensive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping.