From Euractiv via Hellenic Shipping News
, 15/09/2020:
The shipping industry has railed against plans to expand the EU
carbon market to the maritime sector ahead of a crucial vote in the
European Parliament on Tuesday (15 September) that risks putting
lawmakers on a collision course with shippers.
Unlike power plants, industrial sites and flights within the EU,
ships are currently exempt from paying to pollute under the bloc’s
Emissions Trading System (ETS), but that looks set to come to an end
soon.
MEPs will vote on whether to support an initiative that aims to
expand the ETS into uncharted waters, while the European Commission has
repeatedly indicated that it is a part of its climate agenda.
The sector has a pollution problem: in 2018, it accounted for 3.7% of
the EU’s total CO2 emissions and this year the Mediterranean Shipping
Company (MSC) ranked seventh on a list of the bloc’s top ten biggest
emitters. The other nine are coal power plants and Ryanair.
But the World Shipping Council (WSC), which counts giants like
Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and MSC among its members, has warned that carbon
market expansion could jeopardise global efforts to reduce shipping’s
environmental footprint.
In a discussion paper, the WSC said “the international tensions and
disruption caused by an EU ETS with extraterritorial effect would harm
the prospects for a comprehensive global solution through the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO).”
“The EU wants to lead the effort to decarbonise shipping, and that
leadership needs to be channelled through the IMO, which is the only
place where a global solution can be reached,” said CEO John Butler....
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