On 12 August 2018, the five Caspian states—Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan—signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. The surface of the Caspian is treated as a sea and the five states are granted jurisdiction over 15 nautical miles of water from their coasts and fishing rights over an additional ten miles. However, allocation of the seabed and its mineral deposits is left to the five countries to agree on a multilateral basis. Pipelines along the seabed may be constructed, with the approval of the countries whose seabed they cross, subject to environmental conditions. The Convention forbids deployment of military vessels by non-Caspian countries in the waters of the Caspian.

On Friday, 13 April 2018, at the 72nd session of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (“MEPC”), a meeting attended by 100 states, the IMO adopted an initial strategy on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from ships, setting out a vision to reduce Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) emissions from international shipping and phase them out, as soon as possible, in this century. The initial strategy envisages a reduction in the total annual GHG emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050, compared with 2008, while, at the same time, pursuing efforts towards phasing them out entirely. The strategy sets a carbon intensity reduction target—the amount of emissions relative to each tonne of shipping cargo—of at least 40 per cent by 2030, rising to 70 per cent by 2050. The strategy includes a specific reference to “a pathway of CO2 emissions reduction consistent with the Paris Agreement temperature goals”.