Dear Secretary General Kitack Lim,

We, the undersigned environmental organizations, respect and fully support the decision to postpone the 75th meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), given the global imperative to contain and ultimately defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. We are grateful for the leadership of the World Health Organization and other United Nations entities helping respond to the COVID-19 crisis, and we hope you and all IMO colleagues are staying safe and healthy.

We write today to request your personal assurance that IMO’s efforts to achieve its Initial GHG Strategy and phase out of GHG emissions from international shipping consistent with the Paris Agreement temperature goals will not be delayed, despite the postponement of this MEPC. In particular, the IMO Initial Strategy goal of actions to achieve additional substantial CO2 reduction before 2023 should remain unchanged. […]

Read the full letter here