Navigating the Future: Bridging Shipping, Biodiversity, & Decarbonization

A healthy ocean is crucial for the well-being of humans and the planet. With the interconnectedness of marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate change mitigation, it is imperative that we prioritize comprehensive shipping practices to minimize multiple negative impacts.

Shipping is a broadly impactful sector that both contributes to and has the potential to positively tackle the planetary challenges we face today — climate, pollution, and biodiversity. Each of these issues has its own roots and effects in the sector, and all of them must be resolved if we are to ensure a viable future on this planet. A variety of United Nations (UN) bodies and agencies have begun to tackle these crises. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recognized the urgency of climate action and set decarbonization reduction targets of 30% by 2030, 80% by 2040, to zero by 2050, and calling for alignment with a just and equitable transition. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has established steps to end plastic pollution through a redesign (products, packaging, shipping, and system) approach to create more just opportunities. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) is a legal framework aiming to have at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, effectively conserved and managed by 2030. There are further international and regional regulations or instruments that need to be delivered on, to which shipping should contribute, such as the BBNJ (Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction). It is essential to harmonize the efforts of reducing shipping’s harmful effects on marine biodiversity with the drive for zero-emissions shipping.

To this end, Navigating the Future: Bridging Shipping, Biodiversity, and Decarbonization is a comprehensive initiative that evaluates shipping’s impact on ocean health, aligns decarbonization ambitions with biodiversity conservation, engages the shipping community, and formulates strategies to address the multiple, interconnected, adverse effects.