- The European Union supports charges on the international shipping sector’s greenhouse gas emissions document.
- Shipping accounts for nearly three per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
The European Union, Canada, Japan and climate-vulnerable Pacific Island states are among 47 countries pushing support for a charge on the international shipping sector’s greenhouse gas emissions document.
The documents discussed at an International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting now entering a second week outline four proposals with a combined 47 backers for imposing a fee on each ton of greenhouse gas the industry produces.
Likewise, shipping, which transports around 90 per cent of world trade, accounts for nearly three per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions – a share expected to expand in the coming decades without tougher anti-pollution measures.
A proposal tabled by the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and others – which, despite their high reliance on shipping for transport and trade, have demanded an emissions levy for years – proposes a charge of $150 per tonne of CO2.
Also, Argentina, Brazil, China, Norway, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay advocate a global fuel emissions intensity limit, with a financial penalty for breaches, as an alternative to a levy on all shipping emissions. That would mean if countries fully complied with the fuel standard, no emissions would face the fee.
Furthermore, an IMO meeting in September is a deadline for countries to decide whether to take forward the fuel standard and emissions price. A senior EU official said the bloc believes “only the two together can suffice” to meet the IMO’s targets.
The EU, for one, has said it may bring more international shipping emissions into its local CO2 market if the IMO does not agree on a global emissions price by 2028.