The agreement on a framework to achieve the International Maritime Organisation’s greenhouse gas  reduction targets for the international shipping industry was a historic achievement for Jamaica and member States of the Caribbean Community commonly known a CARICOM.

Speaking after the close of the IMO’s Marine Environment and Protection Committee’s 83rd meeting (MEPC83), Bertrand Smith, Director General of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, remarked: “Although the final draft text of the amendments to the MARPOL Convention do not reflect our original position it is a step in right direction”.

Commenting on the meeting’s progress he highlighted: “Jamaica is a member of the IMO Council with significant flag, port and coastal interests, and has always taken a balanced view to the negotiations to implement IMO’s 2023 Strategy on the reduction of GHG emissions from ships. At all times we were mindful of the need to ensure that the draft amendments to MARPOL addressed three primary issues – namely, the promotion of the energy transition, incentivising the fleet, and facilitating a just and equitable transition”.

It is in the latter area that Jamaica, as a member of the CARICOM group and in collaboration with Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS), made proposals to ensure that SIDS and developing countries would not be left behind as the shipping industry took significant steps to decarbonise. This was critical as decarbonisation will come at a major cost to SIDS which are already incurring relatively high transport costs and are having to make significant amounts of expenditure to replace infrastructure damaged by extreme weather events.

A recent example is Hurricane Beryl, an early season Category Four hurricane which, in the space of a few hours, left damage to agriculture and infrastructure amounting to 1% of the total GDP of Jamaica.

The incorporation of economic measures leading to the establishment of a Net-Zero fund were an area of focus for CARICOM SIDS, who at all times negotiated in good faith and in the true IMO spirit and yielded in some areas in order to achieve a text that could be accepted by the majority of member States.

Mr Smith added: “Notwithstanding the historic achievement, much work is left to be done in finalising the several guidelines which will support the draft text – which is expected to be adopted at MEPC 84 in autumn this year. What was, however, made clear at the end of the negotiations was that Caribbean and Pacific SIDS, regardless of their small populations, are now a major force to reckon with in the efforts to adopt  mandatory provisions to incorporate IMO’s mandate to decarbonise the international shipping industry by or around 2050.”