San Francisco, California – On August 6, 2020, a Japanese-owned, Panamanian registered deep sea bulk carrier MV Wakashio began leaking fuel oil off the small island state of Mauritius, sparking an environmental catastrophe. Pacific Environment’s team has since worked to mobilize public awareness and an urgent international response. As of August 12, a reported 1,000 … Read more
August 4, 2020 (San Francisco, California) — The International Maritime Organization (IMO) today released its Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Study. The study finds that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from maritime shipping rose roughly 10% from 2012 to 2018 and are on track to exceed 2008 levels as early as 2019-2020. Carbon dioxide (CO2) constituted … Read more
Today, Pacific Environment thanks the UN’s Shipping Agency for hosting virtual dialogues on rapid decarbonization rules for international shipping. The meetings were held in part due to pressure from Pacific Environment and allies urging that the world cannot allow the COVID-19 crisis to exacerbate the climate crisis. Good technical progress made this week reveals that … Read more
Pacific Environment and Environmental Defense Fund today urge the State of California to move forward overdue climate mitigation and public health measures in California ports. Specifically, we call on the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board to reject several proposals we’ve become aware of asking for delays or roll backs in … Read more
UPDATE: If you missed the webinar, you can watch it now on our YouTube channel. Ships connect the world. The coronavirus crisis reminds us just how much. While millions are on lockdown and entire economies closed, the international shipping industry is working at full speed — moving the foods, goods, and medical supplies the world … Read more
Today, Pacific Environment and environmental allies urge the head of the UN’s Shipping Agency to proceed rapidly to decarbonize international shipping. Critical UN environmental meetings have been rightfully postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic — environmental groups support these actions, but the inability to convene in person must not be used as a pretext to … Read more
In February, our Arctic team returned to London to push for a ban on heavy fuel oil. Pacific Environment and Indigenous and international allies urged the United Nations to listen to science and respect the wishes of local communities to ban this dirtiest of all fossil fuels from the Arctic. The ban will directly protect … Read more
London, Friday February 21, 2020: NGOs and Indigenous groups today cautiously acknowledged progress by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and its Member States in agreeing on a draft regulation on heavy fuel oil (HFO) use and carriage in the Arctic, but denounced the inclusion of loopholes in the text that mean the ban will not come … Read more
Over 46,000 people want Carnival Corporation’s dirty cruise ships out of Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park. We made sure the National Park Service got that message. Two years ago, a Carnival-owned Holland America cruise ship illegally dumped 22,000 gallons of wastewater in Glacier Bay National Park. At the time, they were fined $250—a fraction of … Read more
London, February 17, 2020: NGOs today called on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to protect the Arctic marine environment from the impacts of international shipping, by agreeing to a new regulation banning the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil (HFO) as fuel by ships operating in Arctic waters during this week’s “Arctic IMO Summit” in … Read more
London, January 27, 2020 – Responding to the discovery that some of the new blended low sulphur shipping fuels developed and marketed by oil companies to comply with IMO 2020 air pollution standards will actually lead to a surge in the emissions of a Super Pollutant known as Black Carbon, the Clean Arctic Alliance is … Read more
In this letter, six environmental groups – Pacific Environment, the Clean Shipping Coalition, EcoDes, EDF, Clima e Sociedade (iCS), and WWF – congratulate Kitack Lim on his election to a second term as the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization. They call on him to put all his efforts in 2020 into adopting effective global … Read more
With the support of activists like you, we are building people power around the Pacific Rim to fight climate change, defend the oceans, promote open and inclusive societies, and ensure a just transition to a clean energy future for all. Here are five accomplishments I’m especially proud of this year. They would not have been … Read more
Earlier this year, Mellisa Maktuayaq Johnson told a room full of international shipping experts in London that “the sea and the land are our store.” Most people in the audience are used to shopping at supermarkets like Safeway or Costco, so it took a moment before they grasped the implications of what they were hearing. … Read more
Did you know that about 90% of the goods you consume are transported across the world by ships? Many of those ships are powered by dirty fossil fuels that pollute our air and oceans and worsen the climate crisis. Join us this #GivingTuesday to get ships off of dirty and outdated fossil fuels. Help us … Read more
London, May 17, 2019 – As a meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 74) closed today in London, the Clean Arctic Alliance expressed frustration over Members States’ failure to address the risk to the Arctic from emissions of black carbon from international shipping [1]. A proposal by the Clean Shipping Coalition … Read more
As IMO meets this week in London, groups issue call to reevaluate scrubbers as alternative compliance tool for 2020 fuel standards, citing evidence in US federal case against Carnival Corporation.
Dear Mr. Kitack Lim, International Maritime Organization Secretary-General: We are writing to draw your urgent attention to new information regarding the efficacy of Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS) to meet the standards set forth in MARPOL Annex VI, Regulation 4 for emissions reductions equivalencies. Scrubbers have been referred to as “emissions cheat” systems and for … Read more
Updated February 13, 2020 — The Guide to IMO is a resource for anyone looking to get a crash course in what the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is and how it operates. In the guide, you will find descriptions of committees and sub-committees, section by section summaries of key IMO instruments (like the Polar Code), … Read more
Imagine: Sheer walls of blue ice wedge their way through mountains to meet the sea. Humpback whales rise to the surface to feed on gulps of herring and krill. Seagulls flock to the whales’ cavernous open mouths to snatch a meal. Small coastal communities that live as one with the land and sea. For more … Read more