European Parliament members voted Wednesday to include maritime shipping in the European Emission Trade Scheme Directive by 2023, if there’s no comparable system operating in the International Maritime Organization by 2021.
European Parliament members voted Wednesday to include maritime shipping in the European Emission Trade Scheme Directive by 2023, if there’s no comparable system operating in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) by 2021.
The parliament also agreed to set up a maritime climate fund if progress to reduce maritime-related emissions is not met by 2023.
Under the United Nations’ so-called Paris Agreement, which was approved in late 2015, all countries and sectors of the economy need to take immediate action and contribute to keeping the increase of the global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit). The European Union signed the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2016, and enough countries worldwide have since entered the agreement by Nov. 4, 2016 for it to enter into force for global implementation.
Last October, the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee’s 70th Session agreed on a roadmap towards the development of a comprehensive strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships. This initial MEPC 70 strategy will allow international shipping to take part in the first stock-taking meeting under the Paris Agreement in 2018, where all national reduction targets will be measured.
“As climate change is a global threat and shipping an international sector, it’s clear that a regional approach is not preferable,” said Isabelle Ryckbost, European Sea Ports Organization’s secretary general. “The IMO is by far the right place to introduce a target and measures for shipping emissions.
“Today’s vote in parliament should be seen as an encouragement for a global solution, given that the foreseen deadline of 2023 is respected. If, however, the IMO will not deliver an emissions reduction target and measures to implement it by 2023, an EU approach seems unavoidable,” she added. “We therefore hope that the IMO will speed up the process and demonstrate the same level of ambition when addressing climate change as it did on the global air pollution cap agreed last October.”
The European Community of Shipowners’ Association voiced immediate concern about the European Parliament’s vote, and praised those parliament members who opposed the measure.
“Putting unrealistic pressure on IMO with regional measures that will gravely hurt a global sector and do very little for climate is not the way to proceed,” said Patrick Verhoeven, the association’s secretary general, in a statement. “It will unduly complicate the achievement of an effective and timely global agreement in IMO that everyone in the end wants.”
IMO adopted technical regulations in 2011 to ensure that all ships built in eight years’ time will be at least 30 percent more CO2 efficient than most of the fleet operating today. Many companies in the maritime shipping industry have also committed themselves to reducing their ship emissions through vessel operations efficiencies. According to a 2014 IMO Green House Study, a 10 percent reduction in ship-related emissions over the past five years was recorded.
“EU member states, which are also members of IMO, now have a duty to reject these unhelpful proposals, as they are taken forward as part of the wholesale attempt to reform the EU Emissions Trading System,” said Simon Bennett, International Chamber of Shipping’s director of policy and external relations. “Trying to include thousands of small shipping companies – including thousands of companies not based in the EU – into a system designed for major EU power generating companies and steel and cement producers is only going to complicate this reform.
“Reducing CO2 from shipping is a global problem which can only be addressed successfully at global level by IMO,” Bennett said.
IMO under pressure to meet EU emissions challenge
