Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali is Director-General of the Ghana Maritime Authority
As the global community ratchets up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the transition to green and cleaner energies must not negatively affect food security especially for developing and vulnerable countries.
This is because access to nutritious food in adequate quantities by all those who need it is a fundamental human right – a fact which must not be overlooked in the pursuit of greenhouse reduction measures.
The Director-General of the Ghana Maritime Authority, Navy Captain Kamal-Deen Ali (Rtd.), PhD., said these at the 18th Meeting of the Inter-Sessional Working Group on reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions from ships, at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London.
The meeting, organized by the IMO – an agency of the United Nations – continued the discussions on the technical and economic (mid-term) measures that are needed to support the implementation of greenhouse reduction measures in the shipping industry as outlined in the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy.
Dr. Ali commended the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the IMO for serving as a platform for a comprehensive impact assessment of the implementation of the mid-term measures on food security, saying that was extremely helpful in the decision-making process.
The Ghanaian delegation took cognizance of the findings of the literature review conducted by the World Maritime University on behalf of IMO relating to the impact of the mid-term measures on maritime logistics cost – which is likely to increase after the adoption of the measures – with potentially corresponding negative impact on food security.
“We reiterate that the concerns with the impact on food security for Ghana does not only pertain to essential food commodities, but also to critical agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and machinery, that would ensure food security for our country and many other countries in Africa,” the Director-General observed.
He stressed that, “The negative impact on food security will, therefore, increase the food import wage bill and erode livelihoods of millions of people in Africa.” While over 90percent of globally traded goods is transported by sea, the maritime industry is, at the same time, a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels by ships.
The IMO has thus been actively working on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships and has since July 2023, set an ambitious target of reaching net-zero emissions by or around 2050. The implementation of the measures to curb emissions will in turn increase the cost of maritime logistics with a cascading rise in cost of food in many parts of the world, something the Ghanaian delegation was chiefly concerned about.
Ghana, therefore, called for further empirical assessment of the impact of the measures on food security in developing countries. This, Dr Ali observed, would ensure that remedial measures are put in place to mitigate the impacts before the adoption and coming into force of the measures.
“We want to emphasize that addressing negative impact on food security is a humanitarian issue and a responsibility of the (International Maritime) Organization, and should take center stage in whichever measure(s) that would be adopted,” the GMA DG emphasised.
The maritime expert said, “As a developing African country, which is already climate vulnerable and with an economy that is highly susceptible to shocks, there is no doubt that we will experience disproportionate negative impacts in the implementation of the mid-term IMO GHG measures.”
He pointed out the findings from the IMO comprehensive impact assessment that show potentially “negative impacts on our GDP, consumer prices in general, and food security— a price too heavy to pay for implementing the GHG measures, if no conscious remedial measures are put in place.”
Dr. Ali cautioned that Ghana would not be “in support of a measure that would affect our economy, derail our development priorities and increase Ghana’s economic vulnerabilities.” He, therefore, entreated the IMO to consider the development priorities of African countries by designing measures that would ensure minimal impact on economies.