Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport (MCST) Blog

Hon. Casten N. Nemra Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Republic of the Marshall Islands   Iakwe and greetings from the Republic of the Marshall Islands. I would like to acknowledge and commend the Undersecretary General and all participants to these meetings for the excellent array of background material and thinking that has gone into the draft Ministerial Declaration. Although much does not obviously apply to our situation – we have no rail links or overland connectivity with Europe – we fully recognize that investment in green transport has lagged far behind other sectors and this region now has a major game of catch-up on our hands. We can support in general terms, the body and intent of this draft Declaration and commend the drafting team for their excellent work.   As a representative of the climate most vulnerable nations, it would be remiss of me not to underscore the critical importance of tackling decarbonisation of the transport sector and the import...

  H.E. Ambassador Albon T, Ishoda, Republic for the Marshall Islands Statement to "The Getting to Zero Coalition [1]    7th December Webinar:  Synthesis of Shipping decarbonisation at COP26 and MEPC77.   What does equitable transition look like in practice? That is a very good question and one that none of us have the answer to. Not yet! But it is critically important that collectively we find that answer. And find it relatively quickly.   Mine is an atoll nation. 2m high. For us, the most climate vulnerable of all, it’s a very simple equation. Stay under 1.5 or stop being a country. Whether that means we will still have a flag to fly over a significant proportion of the world’s fleet is another question.   At the International Maritime Organisation, we are finally coming down to the business end of the wedge. What is the Market-based Measure shipping will adopt? Will it really close the price gap with alternative fuels? And if it does, the most conte...

  Dr Tristan Smith is the Associate Professor at University College of London Energy Institute.  The hard work and vocal leadership of Fiji and a number of Pacific countries has, once again, enabled major progress in climate negotiations.  COP 26 started, just under a month ago, with the vast majority of countries, representing the majority of global Gas House Gas (GHG )emissions, signed up to ‘net zero’ targets. Most commonly targeting their national economies to emit net zero GHG by 2050.  For the efforts made to achieve those targets not to be in vain, they need two international transport sectors, shipping and aviation, that most often lie outside of national GHG reduction commitments, to step up to commit to similar.  In 2018, in direct response to calls initially made in 2015 by the late Tony deBrum, Foreign Minister to the Marshall Islands, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted its first commitment to an absolute reduction in GHG emis...