Most Americans likely possess little knowledge of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), but the actions it is taking to address vessel emissions will have consequential negative effects on U.S. citizens and businesses.
The global emissions framework adopted by the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) earlier this year leaned into the expensive, anticompetitive, and unpopular Emissions Trading System created by the European Union and deployed it globally. Under the MEPC framework, shippers and companies everywhere will soon be unfairly assessed a tax on their shipments transiting international waters because the international organization has granted itself the authority to establish such taxes on emissions. Any money collected will be redistributed by the IMO to nations of its choosing to support poorly defined projects that are vaguely purported to achieve largely unquantified goals.
To be clear, costs to ship a container are predicted to rise by $100/shipment or by $50/passenger when taking a cruise all so the IMO can have a pool of money to dole out to whom they want as they see fit. This is unacceptable. Americans should not be subjected to a tax for cargoes travelling on the high seas. The IMO is on a path where their actions seemingly create conditions unfavorable to shipping in foreign trade sufficient to invite scrutiny.
What is disappointing, though not surprising, is that for as effective as the IMO has been in coalescing around an emissions trading system, it has been equally or more so ineffective in addressing the scourge of ghost fleets and substandard registries. Smugglers, terrorists, and pariah regimes have become expert at exploiting the murky world of disreputable registries to mask their illegal activities. Legitimate shipping, innocent seafarers, and the environment are put at risk by those operating ghost fleet vessels. The IMO professes it is addressing the problem, but evidence proves otherwise. It is hard not to see the IMO as a fundamentally ineffective organization only capable of acting in its self-interest to expand its coffers.
Ultimately the ‘Net Zero Framework’ demonstrates the dangerously ambitious instincts of those that envision dictatorial ‘solutions’ delivered on a global scale. Such solutions, also foreshadows a broader oceans and transportation agenda of the IMO that should be viewed skeptically if not outright rejected.
Chairman Louis E. Sola is a Commissioner with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. The thoughts and comments expressed here are his own and do not necessarily represent the position of the Commission.