Abstract
Climate change poses significant threats to the world’s countries, and in particular to shipping. So what is shipping doing about climate change? Despite the significance of shipping to the supply chain, few people know much about what the shipping industry is doing to address climate change and greenhouse gases (GHG). This Article seeks to fill that gap.
Over the past fifteen years (and with increased speed since 2018), shipping has made significant progress towards establishing a framework for reducing GHG emissions. In addition to an extensive literature review, this Article details the progress that shipping has made towards decarbonization. It also offers a primer on the maritime industry’s current regulatory approach to decarbonization. Leveraging data already collected under this approach, it proposes a low and (mostly) revenue-neutral maritime GHG emissions tax in order to further propel shipping towards net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. While many obstacles remain, with these advances, shipping can lead the fight against climate change.