Representatives of the shipping industry, supported by several countries, presented a proposal to the UN to charge a climate-related tax on fossil fuels used by international shipping for the first time.
However, climate advocates are concerned that the tax is too small and could divert attention from more effective ways to reduce carbon dioxide from shipping, which is a growing problem.
The proposed tax of $ 2 (£ 1.40) per ton of fuel used by ships would raise about $ 5 billion over the next decade to finance research and development for zero-carbon ships. The document was presented on Wednesday to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN body that governs global navigation, by the International Navigation Chamber and several other representatives of the sector, and has the support of nine governments.
Guy Platten, the secretary general of the International Navigation Chamber, said the tax would allow a “lunar firing” to produce funds to build prototypes of ships or the infrastructure needed to supply low-carbon energy to ships. There are serious logistical difficulties with the decarbonisation of maritime transport: an electric ship, for example, would require the equivalent of 10,000 Tesla batteries per day to cross the Atlantic. Hydrogen is another proposed fuel, but Platten said that, based on current estimates, it would take 60% of the world’s renewable energy generation to produce enough hydrogen to supply maritime transport.
“We want to demonstrate to society in general that maritime transport has a commitment to the zero network [emissions]”Said Platten. “This would provide significant funds to be used to reach net zero as soon as possible.”
The nine countries, which represent about 40% of the global tonnage of merchant ships, that have signed up to sponsor the proposal at the IMO are Greece, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Malta, Nigeria, Liberia, Georgia and Palau.
Green experts said the proposal would divert attention from initiatives that would have much more impact on ship emissions.
“Countries should not sign this,” said Aoife O’Leary, director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “This is a very small measure and it is a little too late. There are other better options, if [the shipping industry] wants to be genuinely ambitious. “
She said that several of the countries supporting the proposals are “flag registrations”, which make money from licensing foreign-owned or operated by foreigners and have a history of resistance to regulation.
Faig Abbasov, the director of maritime transport for Transport and the Environment, said that many transport companies are already investing in research and development. He contrasted the plans with what he said were the EU’s most effective proposals to include shipping in its emissions trading scheme, and proposals to be submitted to the IMO for a global carbon tax on shipping.
“This tax is not big enough to change behavior,” he said. “The industry is trying to use this as an excuse to derail efforts to include maritime transport in the EU’s emissions trading scheme. There are other genuine carbon pricing proposals that could be submitted to the IMO, but in trying to avoid them, the industry is reducing the bandwidth available at IMO to focus on the other proposals ”.
IMO has spent more than a decade discussing ways to reduce emissions, with few tangible results. In 2018, the UN agency adopted a target to reduce the intensity of emissions from shipping by 40% compared to 2008 levels by 2030, and to cut total emissions in half by 2050. However, so far there is no agreed way to achieve the goal.
Maritime transport transports more than 80% of global trade and accounts for about 2.9% of global carbon emissions. Emissions are expected to more than double by 2050 if measures are not put in place to reduce carbon. The ships run on heavy oil that produces large amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, such as sulfur.
The IMO will discuss ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions from shipping at its next major meeting in June, and at a new meeting in London in November, which coincides with the vital UN climate talks, the Cop26 summit, in Glasgow. Discussions on reducing the climate impact of shipping were scheduled for last year in London, but had to be postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.