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The 1.5/2°C warming limit agreed at the Paris climate summit will be impossible to meet unless Europe and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) introduce measures to cut shipping emissions, NGOs Seas At Risk and Transport & Environment (T&E) have warned.

A recent EU study found that shipping - which is currently estimated to account for nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions - could be responsible for 17% of the planet's CO2 emissions in 2050 if left unregulated. The study took into account the IMO's own research, which found that shipping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are up 70% since 1990 and are projected to grow by up to a further 250% by 2050.

However, the maritime industry was not included in the global warming agreement drafted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), held in Paris between November 30 and December 12.

"Having escaped explicit mention in the Paris climate deal, emissions from shipping are the elephant in the room and will jeopardise the efforts of other sectors – making it all but impossible to keep global warming well below two degrees," the two NGOs said in a statement this week.

"The IMO, the UN body tasked with tackling the climate impacts of shipping, has so far failed to grasp the nettle on shipping's growing contribution to greenhouse gas emissions," they added.

Following the Paris summit, outgoing IMO secretary-general, Koji Sekimizu, said shipping's absence from the Paris agreement "will in no way diminish the strong commitment of IMO as the regulator of the shipping industry to continue work to address GHG emissions from ships engaged in international trade."

In reference to IMO's new secretary-general, Sotiris Raptis, shipping officer at T&E, said this week: "We welcome the new IMO secretary-general, who is coming to office at a key moment following the Paris agreement. We are sure Secretary-General Kitack Lim fully understands the need for the IMO to act now. The EU in parallel needs to include shipping in its 2030 reduction commitment now and in the EU ETS or in an EU climate fund from 2021."

John Maggs, senior policy advisor at Seas At Risk, remarked: "There is no reasonable excuse to continue exempting the sector from the global and EU climate policies. That shipping needs to make its fair share of cuts to keep global warming well below 2 degrees is not negotiable after Paris."