THE International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), whose members represent 80 per cent of the world's merchant fleet, has formally endorsed the recent adoption by the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) plan to end carbon emissions from shipping as a contributor to alleged global warming. This comes as official predictions about the dire consequences of carbon emissions on global warming - which have become a major cost to world shipping - have proven false after 30 years of observable temperature readings, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Nonetheless, the ICS's new publication, 'Reducing CO2 Emissions to Zero', explains what the high levels of ambition agreed by IMO member states could mean for international shipping.

These targets include an efficiency improvement of least 40 per cent - as an average across - the fleet compared to 2008, and a 50 per cent cut of the sector's total greenhouse emissions by 2050, regardless of future trade growth, said the ICS publication.

The ICS publication also explores possibilities for the development of zero CO2 fuels that will almost certainly be required if a 50 per cent total cut in green house gas emissions is going to be delivered before 2050, as well as investigating policy options for short and medium term regulatory measures.

'Reducing CO2 Emissions to Zero sets out ICS's firm opposition to the concept of mandatory operational efficiency indexing of individual ships as a possible candidate measure for CO2 reduction, which ICS argues would lead to serious market distortion,' reports the American Journal of Transportation.

ICS also explains why the European Union needs to align its regional system for collecting CO2 data from ships with the global system that has been established by IMO.

In the introduction, ICS Chairman Esben Poulsson explains: 'We now expect discussions at IMO to begin in earnest on the development of additional CO2 reduction measures, including those to be implemented before 2023. ICS will continue to participate constructively.'