"LONDON — In a clubby mid-rise on the River Thames, its lobby filled with models of container ships and oil tankers, a rather obscure United Nations group is gathering this week to make a momentous decision that will influence whether the world can meet its promise to limit perilous global warming.
The meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the U.N. body responsible for regulating shipping on the seas, opened on Monday, attended by delegates from 175 governments, who are set for a sharp debate over how ambitious they will be in slashing greenhouse gas emissions from the maritime sector.
The shipping industry — vital for trade, but fiscally conservative; international, but greatly influenced by a small number of magnates in a handful of countries — plays an outsize role in climate change. It is traditionally a dirty sector, as most boats burn a heavy fuel oil."
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