Shipping Industry Groups Call For Acceleration of IMO Market-Based-Measure Discussions

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday April 21, 2021

A selection of leading shipping-industry bodies have called for discussions on market-based-measures (MBMs) on decarbonisation at the International Maritime Organization to be brought forward.

BIMCO, CLIA, the International Chamber of Shipping, the World Shipping Council and others made the call in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The groups are calling for MBM discussions to be held at the same time as consideration of their proposal to impose a $2/mt levy on bunker fuel purchases to build up a maritime decarbonisation research and development fund.

"MBMs put a price on CO2 emissions to provide an economic incentive for a sector to reduce its emissions by narrowing the price gap between fossil fuels and zero-carbon fuels," the industry groups said in the statement.

"Shipping leaders believe that now is the time for the IMO member states to consider the role of MBMs so that measures can be developed and implemented to facilitate the adoption of zero-carbon technologies and commercially viable zero-carbon ships.

"As MBMs can take several years to develop and enter into force, implementation of MBMs and their incentivising impacts will only be able to coincide with the wider introduction of zero-carbon technologies if measures such as the industry-financed R&D fund proposal are approved."

The IMO is under pressure to impose its own system of carbon taxation on the shipping industry before its global approach is undermined by regional measures including the European Union's likely inclusion of shipping in its emissions trading system by 2023. Once the EU system is in place, other national and regional bodies are likely to bring in similar plans, making a unified global approach much more complicated.

In Wednesday's statement the shipping industry bodies said the EU's plan "is seen by some observers as a market-distorting solution to a global problem."