International shipping

Assembled from 12 blocks · 2 evidence · 9 related

1. Story
2. Around three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions on the International Maritime Organization's own accounting, and the most energy-efficient way yet devised to move mass over distance — which is precisely why it is difficult. A large container ship or bulk carrier burns residual fuel oil or marine gasoil in a slow-speed two-stroke diesel at thermal efficiencies above fifty per cent, better than almost any other heat engine in commercial use, and it carries fuel for voyages measured in weeks. Batteries are viable for ferries and short coastal work and nothing else. The candidate replacements are all liquid or liquefied: liquefied natural gas, which cuts carbon dioxide modestly and risks unburned methane slip; methanol, which is easy to handle and is being ordered in dual-fuel newbuildings, with the first purpose-built methanol container vessel delivered to Maersk in 2023; and ammonia, which contains no carbon at all but is toxic, has a low flame speed, and produces nitrogen oxides and potentially nitrous oxide on combustion. Wind assistance through rotor sails and rigid wings is a real if partial saving. The sector's distinguishing feature is governance: because ships are internationally flagged and operate outside national jurisdictions for most of their lives, its emissions are regulated by a United Nations agency by negotiated treaty instrument rather than by any single state, which makes progress slower and more consequential at once. Not a place.
3. Knowledge
4. International shipping
5. Connections
6. The electrified share of final energy
7. International Maritime Organization
8. The IMO adopts its revised greenhouse gas strategy
9. Negotiation of the IMO Net-Zero Framework
10. Evidence
11. Supports the net-zero-by-or-around-2050 level of ambition, the indicative checkpoints for 2030 and 2040, and the mandate to develop a technical fuel standard and an economic pricing mechanism as mid-term measures. V55 verification basis: not retrieved in this session, and the resolution number is deliberately omitted because it could not be confirmed. The status of the resulting Net-Zero Framework as of August 2026 is not covered by this record and is marked uncertain on the corresponding event.
12. Supports the sectoral emission structure used throughout this pack, the treatment of industry process emissions as distinct from energy emissions, the assessment of technology cost declines in solar, wind and storage, and the identification of aviation, shipping and heavy industry as hard-to-abate. V55 verification basis: not retrieved in this session; no chapter, table or page number is cited because none could be confirmed, and every sectoral share attributed here is given as a range rather than a figure.