Today, at the conclusion of its eightieth session, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) agreed to the revision of the Strategy for the reduction of greenhouse gases from ships establishing to achieve, with respect to the emissions produced from maritime transport in 2008, zero emissions by or around 2050 and to establish "checkpoints" indicative" in order to achieve a reduction in emissions of at least 20% with the aim of rising to 30% by 2030 and at least 70% with a target of 80% by 2040.

Originally the strategy for reducing greenhouse gases generated by shipping, which had been adopted by Seventy-second session of the IMO MEPC ( of 13 April 2018), provided for a cut of at least 40% of the carbon emissions by 2030 and a reduction of at least 50% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, again with reference to at 2008 levels.

In addition, the new strategy foresees that by 2030 at least the 5%, with the aim of increasing to 10%, of the total demand for energy from maritime transport is supplied from fuels or sources of zero- or near-zero emission energy.

A review of the measures for reduce GHG emissions from shipping on the basis of the results of a report on the implementation of the measures to be presented by the MEPC during its Eighty-first session to be held in spring 2024 and a final report presented at the next session scheduled for autumn next year. The new measures should be approved in 2025 during the spring session of the MEPC and then adopted the following autumn by the Committee for the protection of the marine environment of the IMO.

The independent non-profit organization International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has produced a first comparison of the effects of what was agreed by the session of the MEPC ending today and the initial strategy of 2018, initial strategy - ICCT recalled - which was not compatible with the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming well below two degrees Celsius and continue the efforts to limit it to 1.5 ° C. ICCT explained whereas, on the basis of its own new estimates, with the revision of the Strategy agreed this week on maritime transport international will exceed its current share of the budget global carbon of 1.5°C by around 2032, but not will exceed the global carbon budget by positioning itself well below 2°C, well below - he specified the organization - which can be interpreted as a reduction of 1.7°C.