ICS: Shipping needs international climate plan

ICS: Shipping needs international climate plan    The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) said it was disappointed that the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last week was “silent on the treatment of international shipping in the delivery of further CO2 emission reductions.”
   It is important for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reach an agreement on reducing carbon dioxide emissions when its Marine Environment Protection Committee meets in March 2010 in order to avoid a hodgepodge of national regulations, ICS said.
   ICS, which said its membership includes shipowners’ associations in 33 countries representing 75 percent of the world merchant fleet, said the shipping industry “remains firmly committed” to reducing carbon dioxide emissions while touting shipping as “the most carbon efficient mode of commercial transport.”

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   In a statement issued Monday, the chamber said the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, at least for the moment, failed to give a clear mandate for the IMO “on how to build upon the considerable work already undertaken by IMO on a package of technical, operational and economic measures for reducing shipping’s emissions on a global basis – a mandate strongly advocated by the shipping industry.”
   ICS added: “In particular, it remains unclear how the Kyoto Protocol principle of ‘Common But Differentiated Responsibility’ (CBDR) should be reconciled with the important need for global rules on CO2 reductions for the carriage of world trade ' about 90% of which is carried by ships.
   “Shipping is a uniquely international industry that can only work efficiently when operating within a framework of uniform global regulation that applies equally to all ships regardless of flag,” ICS said.
   ICS said the CBDR principle, “at least at ship or company level, will simply not work without the possibility of ‘carbon leakage’, given that around 65% of the world fleet is currently registered with 'Non-Annex I' nations under the existing Kyoto Protocol.”
   ICS said the shipping industry is still firmly committed to helping develop a global remedy for shipping on CO2 at the March 2010 IMO meeting.
   “But it is vital for all governments to understand that, in the absence of a global package agreed by IMO, there is a serious risk that some countries will develop unilateral measures to regulate at national or regional level the CO2 emissions of ships trading internationally,” it said. “Such unilateral measures would likely result in serious market distortions and – most importantly – be far less effective in ensuring the reduction of CO2 emissions by the global shipping sector as a whole.”