IMO, the International Maritime Organisation, shared a side event with ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Both organisations are proactively trying to prove that they are solely capable of managing their sector's climate change issues.
The IMO has taken a lot of criticism around the amount of emissions generated worldwide by the shipping industry (as of course has ICAO regarding aviation). Therefore, there was a lot of interest in the 20 minute IMO time slot. Their approach was a brilliant one. They apologised for the lack of time, then the Head of IMO Environment Miguel Palomares gave a short intro speech. That was followed by a short, engaging presentation from Karin Sjolin-Frudd . Following that, the IMO opened the floor to questions, using most of their allotted time to engage the audience. And some of the questions were not easy. But they answered them all straight on, and made sure that each of the 7 panellists had a chance to answer a question that was in their area of expertise. The impression they left was that they were on top of the situation. Yes, it won't be easy, but when the UNFCCC delivers a global deal, the IMO, as a united team,will be ready to ensure that it is implemented across the marine sector. The power of two-way communications.
The other half of today's blog is about the energy equation - stationary energy sources such as electric power plants - will have significant challenges if the industry is to meet its obligations for CO2 reductions by 2050. During my discussion with John Scowcroft, from eurelectric, what became clear is that the level of investment necessary is significant - $2 trillion just in carbon reduction technologies alone. However, the scale should not be intimidating: the investment equates to $50 billion per year up to 2050, which is a tenth of the cost recently estimated by the International Energy Assocations (IEA) due solely to adaptation to climate change. In this context, the investment in power plants signals a good deal.
The IMO part of this post was written by Alex Briggs, following the IMO side event, with Sean Cuthbert writing the eurelectric part following his discussion with John Scowcroft.
Today's blogs are:
A unique citizen journalist approach to reporting on climate change
Google earth's climate change video page
Carbon Watch video blogs
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