- About the Project
The Environmental Maritime Governance in Kenya (EMG-K) is a three-year project funded by the Danida Fellowship Centre. It studies Kenya’s engagement in the International Maritime Organization’s Greenhouses Gas Emission reduction negotiations and enforcement of international regulatory measures at the national level.
The design of this project derives from the ongoing efforts by the International Maritime Organization to improve the regulation of emissions from international shipping. Although the international shipping industry accounts for nearly three per cent of global Greenhouse Gas emissions and is a major emitter of air pollutants, it was left out of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Due to the peculiarities of global ship operations and the high mobility of ships, the question of how to reduce international shipping emissions has been referred to the United Nations dedicated maritime agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London. The IMO has adopted several global maritime conventions for environmental protection and maritime safety, with the main one being the MARPOL Convention.
Although the international shipping industry accounts for nearly three per cent of global Greenhouse Gas emissions and is a major emitter of air pollutants, it was left out of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Due to the peculiarities of global ship operations and the high mobility of ships, the question of how to reduce international shipping emissions has been referred to the United Nations dedicated maritime agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London. The IMO has adopted several global maritime conventions for environmental protection and maritime safety, the oldest of which came into existence after the sinking of the “Titanic” in 1912.27Today the IMO’s MARPOL Convention is the main international vehicle for maritime environmental protection.
Following the signing of the Paris Agreement, the IMO adopted an initial strategy for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping in 2018. The strategy expressed the goal of halving emissions by 2050 relative to 2008, but this goal has proven to misalign with the Paris’ Agreements 1.5 Degrees Celsius objective, and international shipping emissions continue to rise. The IMO members have therefore started negotiating a revision of the strategy, which could potentially strengthen the levels of ambition and pave the way for new types of global, maritime climate regulation. The revised Strategy is expected to be adopted in the course of 2023. There are several critical issues on the agenda as part of those discussions, raising the normal divide between developed and developing countries In climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts and finance. Despite this, however, the level of engagement of African countries is limited and not as strong as that in the UNFCCC negotiations. The disparity in influence and focus despite the importance of international shipping sector, its economic impacts to the countries and negative environmental impacts to air quality is one that the study seeks to investigate and contribute to reversing.
