EU plans shipping emissions cap

Barbara Helfferich, environment spokeswoman for the Commission, told ENDS Europe Daily that a decision on how to tackle shipping emissions would "probably be taken after the summer". But, Jos Delbeke, the Commission official in charge of the EU's ETS, told the Financial Times: "By the end of the year we are going to come forward with a proposal to extend the emissions trading scheme to shipping." 

European Community Shipowners' Association (ECSA) Secretary General Alfons Guinier stressed that, while shipping may be the transport mode with the largest CO2 emissions in terms of sheer volume, this was down to the fact that ships carry 90% of world trade. "In reality, shipping produces less greenhouse gases per tonne-mile than any other form of transport," he said. 

He nevertheless told EurActiv that the shipping industry was "not against" a proposal to include it in the ETS "depending on the practicalities". Among others, European shipowners are worried that they will be the only ones carrying the extra cost of cutting CO2 emissions while foreign transporters continue to pollute freely. 

He added that work was already being carried out within the IMO to reduce other forms of pollutants, such as sulphur emissions, through setting international standards, but added that much of the work will have to be carried out by oil companies. "We can only burn what we have," he said. 

He rejected the idea of introducing taxes to tackle the sector's emissions and warned that work on reducing all types of pollutants must be carried out in an integrated manner, because reducing one type of emission can result in increasing another. 

Chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Spyros Polemis confirmed: "IMO should carefully review the environmental necessity of banning the use of higher sulphur fuels in the middle of the ocean, when the results of decisions could be to increase CO2 emission by oil refineries," he said, explaining that more CO2 is churned out during the energy-intensive refining process. 

João Vieira of the green NGO T&E (European Federation for Transport and Environment) said: "We welcome the fact that the EU is finally waking up to the environmental impact of shipping, the second-fastest growing source of climate-changing CO2 emissions. So far, the international community has manifestly failed in its responsibility to clean up shipping in the decade since Kyoto was signed." 

But, he added that emissions trading alone would be insufficient to address the full environmental impact of the sector. "The EU's estimates for aviation suggest that emissions reductions through trading will be offset by less than one year's growth of the industry. With shipping the situation will be similar. We urge the EU to consider other, more effective measures such as differentiated port charges, en-route charges and fuel taxes," he said.