Ship Emissions - UN shipping body agrees to CO2-cutting proposals
In July last year, The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations shipping agency, agreed to voluntary proposals aimed at cutting carbon emissions, but predictably, environmental groups said it fell short of what was needed.
Ships are responsible for around 3% of global warming emissions. The IMO estimates that these emissions could increase by 150-250% by the year 2050 in line with the expected continued growth in international seaborne trade.
The IMO has been slow to come up with international rules to curb maritime emissions and pressure is now growing for them to be addressed within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Australia and France, among others, called for CO2 reduction targets for the sector to be set last December in Copenhagen, where a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, was due to be agreed.
Shipping and aviation are the only industrial sectors not regulated under the Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for greenhouse gas emissions by rich countries for the period 2008-12.
As mentioned, shipping accounts for nearly 3% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and pressure was growing for cuts ahead of the crucial climate change summit in Copenhagen in December. Delegates from around 90 countries approved non-compulsory technical and operational measures to reduce greenhouse emissions from ships. These included an energy efficiency design index for new ships to ensure that new vessel designs are environmentally friendly, as well as guidelines for existing vessels' development index.
Shipping industry officials have accepted some kind of market-based mechanism is needed, with the purpose of offsetting growing emissions in other sectors and providing incentives for the industry to invest in more fuel-efficient technologies. They argue that given shipping's global nature any solution must be directed by the IMO.
A recent report for the European Commission found that imposing an emissions cap and trade scheme is the best option for curbing carbon emissions from shipping in EU waters. The lack of any outcome at the UN’s Copenhagen climate conference in December has only raised expectations that the EU will institute its own controls on the sector.
While maritime emissions are estimated at 3.3 per cent of total emissions worldwide, the commissions report has estimated that the emissions of ships visiting EU ports was equivalent to 6.1 per cent of the trading bloc’s overall emissions. This higher-than-previously-estimated figure puts shipping into the big league alongside the industrial and energy emitters already covered in the EU emission trading scheme (EU ETS). With aviation set to be included in the EU ETS from 2012, efforts to implement shipping emissions regulation at the UNFCCC dragging, and similar efforts at the IMO uncertain, this statistic will only add more weight in Brussels to regulate the sector’s carbon footprint.
The study found under best future scenarios for the development of low carbon technology and fuel efficiency improvements, emissions will still rise without regulation – mainly due to forecast growth in sea trade. The report stated that ‘Even if efficiency gains were to be higher than expected, and all the cost-effective abatement options identified in this report implemented, emissions would still probably continue to increase’. Yet on consideration of those improvements it found that effective mandatory measures to force ship owners to implement them could reduce emissions by up to 47 per cent below business as usual levels by 2030.
The study considered a long list of regulatory possibilities available and settled on five broad approaches for comparison; a cap and trade scheme, a baseline and credit scheme, a carbon tax/bunker fuel levy, mandatory efficiency standards and voluntary action. On the basis of cost and environmental effectiveness, and ease of implementation, the study placed cap and trade at the top of the pile. The best options would be either inclusion of shipping as a covered sector in the EU ETS, or a separate cap and trade arrangement that was linked to the EU ETS.
It recommends the scheme apply to emissions on all voyages to EU ports, with most emission permits auctioned rather than given away.
It also found that a carbon tax could also reduce emissions in shipping by a similar volume. But it would be harder to implement and the most emissions benefit would come from investing the tax revenues in emissions reductions elsewhere – such as in clean technology in developing countries, as had been proposed at the UNFCCC.
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