TWO separate coalitions of shippers and cargo owners have sided with European proposals for regional CO2 action against shipping’s CO2 emissions.
The support for regional action has been welcomed by green lobby groups, such as Transport and Environment.
The Clean Shipping Index, an incentive scheme under the Clean Shipping Network, has a large number of mainly European members, including Volvo, Volkswagen, Scania, Hennes and Mauritz, Stora Enso and energy company, Preem.
CSI director Merijen Hougee wrote an open letter to leading European officials this week, putting forward support for recent proposals at the European Parliament to include shipping in a revised European emission trading scheme.
The ETS revision, is part of European plans to increase its efforts on regional CO2 cuts under the region’s commitment to the UNFCC Paris Agreement. The inclusion of shipping in these plans was agreed by the Parliament’s Environment Committee late last year, but has a number of stages to go through in Brussels before it can come into force.
The proposal is controversial as it is seen by many, including the IMO secretary-general, as potentially damaging international efforts to find a global solution at the IMO.
In the letter Mr Hougee states the belief that his members are willing to scale up commitments in order to address shipping’s CO2 emissions. He also writes in support of the proposal.
First move action on a state or regional level has often in the past played an important role in triggering action at a wider international level.
The letter concludes:
It is time to boost actions at international level to reduce shipCO2– one of the last climate frontiers. We call on the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament to ensure that EU related shipping contributes to the EU’s 2030 climate targets from 1 January 2023 via the ETS or Maritime Climate Fund if IMO does not deliver a global measure to address shipping GHG emissions.
We also call on the European Commission to facilitate this process. Global level action at the IMO remains a central objective and European states should continue to work with all IMO members to achieve this goal.
Read the letter from the Clean Shipping Index here
The other group supporting regional action is Biceps – Boosting Initiatives for Collaborative Emission-reduction with the Power of Shippers. It is a new rating system for shippers, and used by comanies such as Akzo Nobel, under a Dutch initiative, Pure Birds.
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