Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in a press conference Friday that the Internatonal Maritime Organization talks on shipping emissions were a little more difficult than expected because he had hoped to work with consensus of nations rather than hold votes of participants.
He was determined to try to get more consensus, he said.
America dropped out of the talks.
Dominguez declined to be drawn on whether the prospect of higher tariffs and lower levels of global trade brought on by President Donald Trump’s trade negotiations hindered (or helped) the narrower IMO talks on setting rules to make the global shipping industry zero out its impact on the climate by 2050.
CarrZee: I would argue that the “technical” talks on net zero are actually not a sideshow at all.
“The topic of the tariffs is not within the remit of IMO, …it is not for me … to make any comments on the decisions that the member states make within their own jurisdiction,” Dominguez said. “What I can say is that it was demonstrated that we continue to work as an organization, address the concerns, and I’ve always said that I welcome the participation of all the members in engaging with us in order to listen to those concerns, address them, looking to the common areas in how we move forward together.”
Did the Trump tariff proposals hinder the IMO talks, yes or no?
“The answer is, we demonstrated today that we actually came to our conclusion. We are aware of what’s happening around the world. We take into account the concerns of the member states, but we work on developing technical and operational measures when it comes to the safe and efficient operations of the ships around the world,” he said.
It was a positive that this week’s IMO talks came to a conclusion (even without everyone in agreement), he said.
“My next step is to work with the member states in understanding further the concerns that they have … and how to bring them onto the table.”
Text of the IMO meeting was not available at the time of the Friday afternoon press conference, which was brought forward to 4.30pm from 5.30pm London. This means it’s more difficult for reporters to hold climate envoys and the UN / IMO secretariat to account for their progress (or lack of it).
Dominguez (Panama) denied there was any delay to the process, yet climate data shows temperature rises are gathering pace. He argued that international law worked at its own pace. He apparently fails to remember that repeatedly keeping bad laws as they are is in itself a decision.
Panama is now letting US troops oversee its trade.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/panama-deal-allows-us-deploy-010953740.html
Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez (Magdalena was hostess)
The optics could not be starker as trade is under attack in the Middle East and war threatens the South China Sea.
CarrZee: The IMO meeting this week effectively decided to go slow, despite the worrying science and geopolitics. If these people negotiating can’t make decent progress, they should give humans interested in actually representing the wants of people globally a chance to do it.
People want aggressive climate action that also deals with inequality, because rich people have mostly caused the climate problem. It’s very clear, to me, anyway.
“What we have here is a setback to national sovereignty,” Panamanian trade union leader Saul Mendez told AFP (in relation to the US troops).
“What the Panamanian government has done is an act of treason. They are traitors and must be tried.”
