Partnerships and innovations are essential to combat climate change through reductions in GHG emissions. Norway has provided an additional NOK 40,000,000 (US$4.3. million) to the IMO-Norway GreenVoyage-2050 project, which will support GHG reductions in line with the IMO initial strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. This supports UN SDG 13 on climate action. The project aims to assist countries to implement legal, policy and institutional reforms, build capacity and initiate and promote global efforts to demonstrate and test innovative technical solutions for reducing GHG emissions from shipping. IMO is currently in the process of selecting pioneer pilot countries, new pilot countries, partner countries, industry partners and strategic partners at national, regional and global levels.

The new tranche follows an initial funding of NOK 10,000,000 (US$1.1. million) for the project, provided earlier this year.

Meeting with IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim to sign the agreement for additional funding (13 November), Mr Sveinung Oftedal, Specialist Director of the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, said, “Norway is very pleased to enhance our financial commitments to support IMO’s efforts to build capacity and to provide technical assistance to support the IMO initial GHG strategy. We will continue our efforts to further support the GreenVoyage-2050 project, considering the importance of this project to achieve the goals of the IMO GHG strategy.”

IMO is involved a range of partnerships which contribute to sustainable development and reflect UN SDG 17 (partnerships). Other IMO-executed global projects supporting the reduction of GHG emissions from shipping include the Global Industry Alliance to Support Low Carbon Shipping (GIA),  under the auspices of the GEF-UNDP-IMO Global Maritime Energy Efficiency Partnerships Project (GloMEEP Project)  the Global Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre Network (GMN) project, funded by the European Union and implemented by IMO.