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Governance of Shipping: the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) are part of the way in which the shipping sector regulates itself and works with the green transition and climate change. The SDG’s hold soft power and can govern in a unique manner. The governing that happens through SDG’s overlaps with the regulation that happens through other organizations as the EU or the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and even the self-regulation of the shipping sector.

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals
The SDG’s were created in 2015 and are a set of 17 global targets for all of Humanity’s developmental progress till 2030. The UN SDG’s consists of a coherent framework that allows for specific sectors to address environmental and socioeconomic problems that arise with man made climate changes. The SDG's directly affect the shipping industry through various target settings including greenhouse gas emission reductions, promoting sustainable labor laws and reducing marine pollution.

SDG’s and Shipping Governance
The shipping and maritime transportation industry are working to implement the SDG’s. Both the IMO and the Danish Shipping Association, that represents one of the worlds largest shipping and container companies, are for example implementing the SDG's in strategies. In 2018, the IMO developed a strategy for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The target is to reduce the GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 .The IMO is relating the SDG’s to their work, as they demonstrate how shipping might contribute to a global sustainable development and how the SDG’s might play into their strategy for the development of the sector.

Lack of implementation of SDG's in Shipping
While the definitions of sustainable development between the UN and the shipping industry are mostly coherent (human centered), the implementation of the SDG’s is non-coherent and of a muddy nature. Wu et al. 2020 informs that the shipping industry’s work with the SDG’s is somewhat superficial, as the industry operates with a limited understanding of both sustainability and development. The focus is still on economic advancements, that limits the true implementation of eg. SDG 14 about healthy oceans and life in the sea. Here it is essential to reduce human consumption. Assunta Di Vaio et al. 2020 on the other hand confirms that the shipping industry has dedicated commitments toward meeting the 2030 SDG’s through voluntary disclosure practices. The practices are integrated in both large and smaller shipping companies, but lack specific indicators for measuring and evaluating strategic performance. Bullock et al. 2022 also highlights the need for better and more substantial climate change targets. Overall the literature points towards a superficial implementation and governance through the SDG’s, as the shipping sector has no structured reporting on SDG progress.

How the sector might improve integration of SDG’s
Assunta Di Vaio et al. 2020 demonstrates that the sector has committed to voluntary practices and strategies that include the SDG’s, but real implementation is yet to be seen. Assunta Di Vaio et al. 2020 identifies the lack of reporting as an issue that hinders stakeholders, the public and policy makers in knowing the sector’s impacts. While most shipping companies today report on sustainability and corporate strategies, the lack of quantitative indicators or targets is problematic. The industry mostly reports qualitatively on SDG related progress. In this sense it becomes difficult for stakeholders to evaluate the sectors efforts or lack thereof. A truer implementation of the UN SDG’s would include a better integration in reporting, where stakeholders can take stock of work done.