Carbon Cuts Possible for Shipping Industry
The new head of the U.N. shipping body says the organization may consider curbing the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, Climate Home reported.
Kitack Lim assumed leadership of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on January 1. Fighting climate change and preventing pollution in the maritime environment are priorities for the IMO, he said.
The discussion on cutting greenhouse gas emissions could come up at the IMO’s environment committee meeting in April, the article said.
Shipping accounts for about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. That could rise to 10 to 32 percent by 2050, according to one estimate.
Shipping and aviation were two industries left out of the Paris Agreement on climate change in December.
Efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions from the global shipping fleet were first put to the IMO by the Marshall Islands last spring. The Pacific state has a large shipping registry, but is also threatened by rising sea levels.
Koji Sekimizu, who led the IMO at the time, rejected the suggestion to cut maritime carbon dioxide emissions because such measures could harm the global economy.
Saami Community in Sweden Wins Rights Case
A Saami village in Northern Sweden has been awarded the right to control hunting and fishing in its area, following a 30-year battle, reported the Guardian.
The court’s decision gives back land-right control that had been stripped from the Saami by Sweden’s parliament in 1993, the article said.
Asa Larsson Blind, vice-president of the Saami Council, which represents Saami people in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, told the Guardian that it was a “symbolic step” toward having the rights of Saami recognized.
During the case, academic researchers slammed the lawyers for the state for the “rhetoric of race biology,” according to the article.
The Saami in Sweden are opposed to an iron ore mine in northern Sweden. Although this ruling won’t have a direct effect on that conflict, it may give the Saami more influence on decisions over development projects.
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Top image: The International Maritime Organization may consider limiting the shipping industry’s greenhouse gas emissions at a meeting later this spring. Such measures would include ships operating in the Arctic, such as these cargo vessels docked at the Port of Murmansk. (Bloomberg via Getty Images/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr.)