Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport (MCST) Blog

Atina Schutz is a law student at the University of the South Pacific who has been closely following the IMO negotiations  The shipping industry accounts for 3% of all CO2 emissions, and is on track to grow as high as between 50% and 250% in 2050. At the International Maritime Organization (IMO), discussions on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from ships are ongoing. While progress is slowly being made, the main thing people in the Pacific, and everywhere, should be watching is equity in the progress of GHG reduction debates.  In the global market, the Pacific is at a disadvantage. Our small economies, with distantly spread islands, are very far from the global market, which is heavily concentrated in the Global North. When it is time to decarbonize, that disadvantage will be exacerbated. As decarbonization is a highly costly and technical process, the cost will fall on governments already struggling to provide other equally important services to their citizens. ...

Dr. Peter Nuttall  Micronesian Centre for Sustainable Transport.     This article was published exactly one year ago since appearing on this blogsite. By the time this goes to print, Severe Tropical Cyclone Harold is hopefully situated well to the south of Fiji. But TC Harold has already taken a toll in human life and structural damage in the Solomon Islands and, as I write, is poised to strengthen to Category 5 as it slams into Vanuatu. The heartbreaking news of the maritime disaster that has happened in the Solomon’s this week, with at least two vessels washed ashore and some 28 passengers washed off an inter-island ferry (MV Taimareho), overcrowded with 738 villagers fleeing COVID19 is a stark reminder of how vulnerable our aged and over-stretched domestic shipping services are in the Pacific. It also highlights how quickly stretched our national capacity is when countries are suddenly faced with not one, but two simultaneous national disasters. Like most countrie...