ENVIRONMENT
POWER TO THE PROJECT PEOPLE
K Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the climate challenge plainly in his opening statement, welcoming the world to Glasgow, Scotland for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). “Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change,” Johnson said at the COP26 World Leaders Summit Opening Ceremony in November. “It’s one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now.” His words were necessarily inflammatory – and may not have inspired immediate action among those servicing the breakbulk and project cargo 8 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com
industries. But there were plenty of outcomes from that seminal Climate Conference that will set a path for the green evolution of the sector. The ultimate outcome of the Conference – the Glasgow Climate Pact – ticked off the major hot-button topics of emissions, peak coal, financing to help developing countries cope with and mitigate the effects of climate change, and the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies. Those macro topics will certainly have a bearing on the breakbulk and project cargo world. For example, the Global Methane Pledge, led by the U.S. and the European Union, seeks to curb methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and
BY CARLY FIELDS
has been signed by more than 100 countries. Methane ‘slip’ – where methane is emitted unburned from an engine, contributing to damaging emissions – has been a divisive factor in whether to use liquefied natural gas as a fuel in the sector. The pledge puts the onus on engine developers to resolve that issue or else find that their technology is cut out of the selection loop. But while the macro level impacts such as that will be part of longer-term solutions, it’s the micro level agreements and initiatives agreed at COP26 that will have the greatest impact on the breakbulk and project cargo industry in the short term. JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
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COP26 Sets Path for Sector’s Decarbonization
