Global Shippers’ Forum calls on industry to agree on carbon reduction measure

The shipper advocacy group said it supports a ship efficiency credit trading scheme such as the one proposed by the United States, rather than a global bunker fuel levy approach.    The Global Shippers’ Forum (GSF) has called on the shipping industry to reach agreement on a market-based measure for carbon reduction.
   In a statement timed with the COP21 climate change talks in Paris, the group said, “The shipping industry needs to set its own challenging but achievable voluntary CO2 reduction targets for the maritime sector or risk targets being imposed.”
   Representing shipper interests, GSF said it is keen to avoid a patchwork approach of national CO2 targets, which would be complex and difficult to manage, and wants the shipping industry to be proactive in agreeing to voluntary measures. The European Union, for example, is already proceeding with its own monitoring, verification and reporting system in the absence of an IMO agreement.
   “Shippers are under increasing pressure to respond to the climate change challenge – they must understand, monitor and report their supply chain carbon footprint in order to meet their reporting and regulatory obligations,” said GSF. “However, they are dependent on the shipping industry to provide accurate data on emissions and the GSF believes urgent action is now needed to agree targets.”
   “We believe the International Maritime Organization (IMO) should retain responsibility for this issue given its strong track record, but more progress is needed on appropriate Market-Based Measures (MBM),” said Chris Welsh, secretary-general of the GSF. “It is crucial to select a measure that will incentivize technical and operational measures to reduce CO2 and not simply pass on additional costs to shippers. The Ship Efficiency Credit Trading (SECT) proposed by the United States comes closest to meeting the principles for a good MBM set out by GSF”.
   GSF called on the IMO to accelerate progress on MBMs, which have been debated for the last few years without reaching a consensus.
   It said its members support MBMs that incorporate transparent measurement and recording of fuel usage and activity data, improvements in operational efficiency, and transparency of CO2 emissions and interventions. The SECT proposal, which GSF favors, would incentivize operational and technical measures to reduce CO2 emissions.
   GSF said it “opposes a global bunker fuel levy approach which risks passing costs on to shippers and distorting trade without reducing maritime CO2 emissions. Such an approach has been rejected by the equivalent global body for aviation (ICAO) for the same reason.”