The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & IMO CARES Update
In September 2021, H.E. Saleh Al-Jasser, The Minister of Transportation and Logistics of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia met with the Secretary-General Kitack Lim to sign the partnership agreement to fund the preparatory stage of IMO Coordinated Actions to Reduce Emissions from Shipping (IMO CARES) Foundation Project.
IMO CARES seek to support coordination to accelerate demonstration of green technologies and their deployment globally in a manner that facilitates blue economic growth in developing regions. through pilot technology demonstration projects as well as green financing initiatives which will accelerate the decarbonization process of the maritime sector in developing countries, especially in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
Since the signing, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has funded this preparatory phase and has undertaken all the preparatory activities alongside the IMO to develop and design a sustainable global CARES programme, which aims to be a long-term initiative. The previous months have seen IMO workshops across the globe to gather valuable feedback and information to support the CARES programme in the future.
IMOCARES also presented at the United Nations World Oceans Day in Portugal and has facilitated international technical workshops in collaboration with Maritime Technology Cooperation Centers in the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific. These workshops have created the opportunity to bring experts from an array of fields to share their expertise and gathering feedback from stakeholders in these diverse regions. Such outcomes allow for progress towards the establishment of a multi-stakeholder coalition with a view to the launch of the full IMO CARES Programme in 2023.
Building on from the success of the workshops, meetings were undertaken with R&D Centres, International financial institutions, UN agencies and others to identify their needs and how stakeholders might collaborate under an IMO CARES framework. Work is still ongoing in developing the CARES Strategic framework alongside IMO and external partners while Mr. Essam Al Ammari, Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization for Saudi Arabia stated “Future advancements in maritime technical cooperation depend upon continued close collaboration between member states, the IMO, maritime organisations as well as financial institutions."
Read more at:
https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/Pages/WhatsNew-1748.aspx and https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/PartnershipsProjects/Pages/IMO-CARES.aspx
