The organisation has released a statement outlining its view on how the maritime sector should address the issue.  

The GSF is keen to avoid a patchwork approach of national CO2 targets which would be complex to manage and wants the shipping industry to be proactive in agreeing voluntary measures. The EU is already proceeding with its own monitoring, verification and reporting system in the absence of an IMO agreement. 
 
Shippers are under increasing pressure to respond to the climate change challenge - they must understand, monitor and report their supply chain carbon footprint in order to meet their reporting and regulatory obligations. However, they are dependent on the shipping industry to provide accurate data on emissions and the GSF believes urgent action is now needed to agree targets. 
 
Chris Welsh, Secretary-General of the GSF, said: “All stakeholders agree that additional measures are needed to reduce CO2 emissions from the maritime sector. The debate now is how to get this done. We believe the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) should retain responsibility for this issue given its strong track record, but more progress is needed on appropriate Market-Based Measures (MBM).  It is crucial to select a measure that will incentivise technical and operational measures to reduce CO2 and not simply pass on additional costs to shippers. The Ship Efficiency Credit Trading (SECT) proposed by the United States comes closest to meeting the principles for a good MBM set out by GSF." 
 
GSF says the shipping industry needs to set its own challenging but achievable voluntary CO2 reduction targets for the maritime sector or risk targets being imposed. Progress is currently being made with the development of a global data collection system but GSF is calling on the IMO to accelerate progress on MBMs, which have been debated for the last few years without reaching a consensus. 

Photos:  Shippers are under increasing pressure to respond to the climate change challenge.