Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals is Affordable and Clean Energy. In the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in the Pacific island region — a country that is 99.99% ocean and is therefore highly dependent on sea transport — domestic ships run mainly on costly imported fuels that also emit a significant volume of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
RMI, which faces an existential risk from climate change-induced sea level rise, was the first country to pledge, under the Paris Agreement, to a 32% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions below 2010 levels by 2025, and to a 45% reduction by 2030, towards its goal of zero net emissions by 2050. Central to the achievement of these goals is the reduction of the country’s GHG emissions from sea transportation.
