The Latest: Shipping firms seek technology to cut emissions

Major shipping companies are calling for governments to put more money into researching and developing cleaner technologies to help the industry reduce its greenhouse gas emissions

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The latest on the U.N. climate summit COP26 in Glasgow:

GLASGOW, Scotland — Major shipping companies called Friday for governments to put more money into researching and developing cleaner technologies to help the industry reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The International Chamber of Shipping said the industry isn’t on track to meet its goal of cutting carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050 with current policies.

The trade group represents shipping companies that include MSC and Hapag Lloyd. Industry representatives and government ministers are meeting at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow

The group said it is asking governments to increase R&D spending, including by backing a proposal at the International Maritime Organization that would see ship owners set up a $5 billion fund to boost clean shipping technology.

Shipping currently accounts for about 3% of global emissions.

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GLASGOW, Scotland — Anti-poverty charitable confederation Oxfam says the world’s richest people continue to produce the lion’s share of greenhouse gas emissions.

A study released Friday on the sidelines of the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow concluded that the richest 1% of the planet’s population is expected to account for 16% of total global emissions by 2030.

The study, commissioned by Oxfam, calculated that each member of the richest 1% will emit 30 times more than the 2.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide deemed compatible with the goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

The poorest 50% on the planet, meanwhile, will continue to emit less than that amount per person by 2030.

Oxfam said the study indicates that a tiny elite of ultra-rich people “appear to have a free pass to pollute.”

“The emissions from a single billionaire space flight would exceed the lifetime emissions of someone in the poorest billion people on Earth,” said Nafkote Dabi, head of climate policy at Oxfam.

Emissions caused by the wealthiest 10% alone could put the 1.5 C-goal out of reach by the end of the decade, Dabi added.

Tim Gore of the non-profit Institute for European Environmental Policy, wrote the study. He suggested that measures are needed to limit carbon emissions from luxury consumption such as mega-yachts, private jets and space travel.

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GLASGOW, Scotland — Environmental campaigners have awarded their ‘Fossil of the Day’ award to the Polish government for giving — and then apparently backtracking on — a pledge to speed up its phaseout of coal power.

Climate Action Network, an umbrella group representing hundreds of non-governmental organizations, blasted Poland on Thursday for committing at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow to end coal use, but then declaring itself a poor country and sticking to its previous deadline of 2049.

The little-coveted award went to the United States on Wednesday, for what climate activists say was a new measure that benefits mainly industrial agriculture companies rather than ordinary farmers.

The U.S. shared the prize with France for its efforts to get natural gas and nuclear power plants classified as sustainable forms of energy by the European Union, and with the International Emissions Trading Association for representing oil majors such as Chevron and Shell at the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 talks.

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