For the decarbonisation of the maritime sector, "the regulations alone are not enough. We need development and alternative fuels. And this can happen only in one way: with investments". It has underlined the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Arsenio Dominguez, speaking yesterday at the Blue Economy Finance Forum at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

On the standards front, in April the Marine Environment The IMO Protection Committee has approved provisions for ship fuels and ship emissions whose adoption is Expected for October ( of the 11th April 2025). Dominguez pointed out that, however, the work is not enough if you do not invest in a volume of production of alternative fuels sufficient to replace the 350 millions of tons of fuel oil that ships burn every year and in equipping ports with bunkering facilities and services necessary to provide clean fuel to ships. "The Decarbonization - he underlined - has a cost. We already have spent money to pollute the environment. It's time for all of us to we invest to clean it up and make it sustainable for the future generations".

Meanwhile, in view of the COP30 to be held in November in Belém, Brazil, the environmental associations Opportunity Green, Seas At Risk and Transport & Environment have called on the countries to include emissions from shipping in their Nationally Determined Contributions, the plans do not binding climate change agreements under the Climate Change Agreement Paris.

"For too long - underlined Aoife O'Leary of Opportunity Green - States have ignored their commitments international legal frameworks to regulate greenhouse gas emissions pollutants produced by international maritime transport and the damage brought to our oceans. International tribunals are beginning to highlight this obvious gap and the Member States must respond by including international maritime transport in its Nationally Determined Contributions and addressing adequately these emissions. The responsibility is the first step for meaningful action."

"It is - added Faig Abbasov of Transport & Environment - that states finally take responsibility of shipping emissions that fuel trade international so dear to them. Contrary to what supported by the industry, the legal analysis showed that the maritime transport and air transport are in fact part of the of the Paris Agreement. Countries must review their Contributions determined at national level to include all emissions of the maritime transport in the "economic" contributions as required by the Paris Agreement, and establish a price for all maritime carbon emissions, which the preliminary agreement of the IMO does not provide".