EMEA News
NGO Calls for More Ships to be Included in EU ETS Carbon Pricing Scheme
Exemptions permitted under European Union (EU) carbon price proposals for shipping would amount to more than 25 million metric tonnes of C02 not being included, according to environmentalist Transport & Environment (T&E).
The European Commission carbon pricing scheme proposals from July apply to ships over 5,000 GT with further exemptions for other ship types including fishing, military vessels and offshore oil and gas support ships.
Over half of Europe's ships by number will fall outside the proposal, according to T&E.
However, with larger vessels producing a far greater proportion of the emissions, using T&E's numbers the current rules will still capture over 80% of EU shipping emissions, which totals 130 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
T&E is calling for all ships above 400 GT to report their emissions but only be subject to the ETS if their yearly emissions exceed 1,000 tonnes of CO2.
This, they say, would cover 12% more emissions than the current proposal and also be inline with the EU's original proposals on what the exemptions would cover.
"The EU must rethink its shipping laws to ensure that millions of tonnes of CO2 don't go unregulated," T&E's Jacob Armstrong urged, suggesting the current scheme was based on "arbitrary loopholes".
However, many others say there should be no regional carbon schemes at all, with the shipping industry as a whole favouring a global approach to carbon pricing.
A new report from shipping lobby group Getting to Zero outlines various policy options to achieve net zero by 2050.
