Aronnax. The maritime and ocean podcast

The International Maritime Industry, through the environmental protection committee is working to find agreement on how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of shipping.

It is difficult as member states send representatives to toe a particular political line, making compromise hard. However it is not impossible, but progress is slow (which annoys the green lobby groups) and the debate sometimes heated (especially as the current meeting is online and subject to truncated hours and ongoing technical glitches).

However while the IMO member state representatives debate the future of shipping, the secretariat continues to do its work, which also includes realising its plans for the newly formed Partnerships and Projects department, which amongst other things aims to mobilise funds and resources to help countries, notably developing countries, with their decarbonisation plans (including getting their regulations sorted).

I spoke to Jose Matheickal, Partnerships and Projects department chief earlier in the year about the formation of this department, and with the November climate talks in full swing, I poke to him again to hear about some of the projects, notably the issue of project finance and how to mobilise finance for international decarbonisation, given some of the announcements the department has recently made.