Abstract
This article examines private standards that aim to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in shipping. These have emerged against a backdrop of regulatory inertia and the exclusion of international shipping from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. They are a product of complex governance arrangements and they have addressed areas of market failure that have held back fuel efficiency advances that are made possible by technological innovations. These private standards hold considerable promise but suffer to different degrees from certain weaknesses, notably a lack of transparency, a low level of ambition and concerns about data reliability. This article examines these deficiencies together with the reasons for them, and assesses the role that law could play in addressing them. It argues that the conditions may be present for the mitigation of shipping’s GHG emissions to become a site of ‘hybrid’ governance, combining private standards and state/supra-state law in a productive way.
Highlights
This article looks at the recent development of a series of private greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards in the global shipping industry in the context of the profound decarbonisation challenge faced by this sector
In terms of level of ambition, it is important to observe that while the private standards under discussion aim to improve the energy efficiency of shipping, they do not seek to guard against rising GHG emissions that are generated as a result of increasing transport demand
Progress in regulating GHG emissions from shipping has been slow and has been thwarted in significant part because of disagreements between countries about the status and implications of the CBDR principle. It is against this backdrop that private standards governing GHG emissions from international shipping have emerged
Summary
This article looks at the recent development of a series of private greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards in the global shipping industry in the context of the profound decarbonisation challenge faced by this sector These arise out of complex governance arrangements based on fluid partnerships between industry, nongovernmental orgnisations (NGOs), climate change philanthropy organisations and academic institutions. This article begins by explaining the scale of the shipping sector’s decarbonisation challenge and provides a brief overview of existing regulatory responses to this (section 2) It proceeds to introduce the concept and promise of private standards (section 3) and to identify the most important private standards that aim to mitigate GHG emissions from shipping and to explore their potential (section 3). Before concluding (section 8), the article examines the deficiencies inherent in private standards (section 5), assesses the reasons for these (section 6) and explores the relationship between private standards and law (section 7)
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