Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is backing a new climate action partnership targeting zero-emission transportation, including shipping.
Launched at the Davos Agenda, the Mission Possible Climate-Action Partnership (MPP) includes 400 companies and is funded by the Bezos Earth Fund and Breakthrough Energy. It is also working closely with the Global Maritime Forum.
MPP is managed by the Energy Transitions Commission, Rocky Mountain Institute, the We Mean Business coalition and the World Economic Forum.
The partners said: “MPP aims to accelerate several pathways for decarbonising heavy industry and transport by unifying the critical actors needed to influence and enable industry transformation at speed and scale.”
The idea is that the initiative can help accelerate decarbonisation in industries, such as shipping, which could fall outside national targets on reducing carbon emissions.
“MPP is centred on the idea that, while the Paris Agreement lays the groundwork for global cooperation, its focus on national targets will not generate the plans and solutions necessary to achieve efficient and effective transition strategies for global industries on its own,” it said.
The partnership is aiming to demonstrate net-zero emission breakthroughs in transport industries by late 2021 and, within three years, help transport companies to complete climate action plans.
MPP said 157 shipping companies are involved in the project. It said it is “already engaged to ensure the viability of zero-emission vessels along deepsea trade routes by 2030 and build the infrastructure for scalable zero-carbon maritime energy.”
“With a focus on the seven sectors that account for 30% of global emissions, the MPP has developed an approach to help entire industrial ecosystems define and organise their journey to net-zero emissions,” said Paul Bodnar, managing director of the Rocky Mountain Institute.
