Maritime emission plan disappoints

Including shipping in the EU emissions trading scheme will not be enough to tackle rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the sector, according to environmentalists.

EU officials last month said that the Commission would draft plans to make shipping companies buy and sell permits for CO2 emissions from each other. The decision was seen as an admission that attempts to reach an international deal on shipping emissions had failed.

But T&E, an environmental group, is warning that a cap-and-trade system alone will do little to reduce the environmental impact of shipping.

"The shipping sector is growing so fast that emissions reductions through trading could be wiped out by a year’s growth," said João Vieira of T&E. According to the group, shipping was responsible for 3% of international CO2 emissions in 2001.

Shipping is the second fastest growing source of CO2 emissions, after aviation. The Commission last year proposed including all domestic and international flights that use an EU airport in the emissions trading scheme (ETS) from 2012.

"We don’t have all the details [of the problem and possible solutions] for shipping, as we have for aviation," said Vieira. "We urgently need to study what can be done."

He suggested including port charges based on emissions of all pollutants, technical measures to make ship engines cleaner and an increase in fuel taxes for ships.

T&E is also worried about other pollutants from ships, in particular sulphur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). SOx can cause acid rain, while NOx is linked to health problems and smog.

"Probably what we need is a pack of several policy options," said Vieira. "We are not saying emission trading won’t be a good step, but it is clear we need something more."

Representatives of the EU’s shipping industry say it has not yet decided the most appropriate way to reduce emissions.

"We are still looking into this," said Alfons Guinier, secretary-general of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA). "Some of our members, particularly in Sweden, have spent time investigating the emission trading option and are very much in favour of it."

He said the ECSA expected to receive a report on emissions trading from the Swedish government and would agree its own position after considering the results.

"The main question is how to design a holistic approach to address all types of emissions from ships," he said. "A ship running on sulphur fuel might have a lower CO2 impact, but it causes other pollution problems that also need to be addressed."

Guinier said that it would be difficult to set up a differentiated port charging system without damaging port profits and that the shipping sector could not be made to pay for a shortage of clean shipping fuels.

"The main question is, what can the oil industry produce?" said Guinier. "We can only use what they give us."

A spokeswoman for Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said that shipping emissions were likely to be tackled through an emissions trading system, but that no decision had been made.

"At first glance, emissions trading seems to be the best way to do something," she said, "but we don’t exclude any options at this stage."

The spokeswoman said that an impact assessment like that carried out for the aviation sector was a possibility. The scope of the ETS is being reviewed this year.

Including shipping in the EU emissions trading scheme will not be enough to tackle rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the sector, according to environmentalists.