EU plans shipping emissions cap before 2008
The European Commission (EC) has said that it will draft legislation before the end of the year to limit ship "climate change" carbon emissions under a Kyoto-style cap-and-trade system, reports the EuroActiv.com news agency.
The specialist news agency said the EC confirmed on April 16 that it will propose adding shipping companies to the emissions trading scheme, the EU's principal tool for meeting its Kyoto commitments.
But European Community Shipowners' Association (ECSA) secretary general Alfons Guinier argued that world shipping produces fewer greenhouse gases per tonne-mile than any other form of transport, and its high emission volume resulted from the fact that ships carry 90 per cent of global trade.
Mr Guinier also said emissions trading schemes might well put European shipowners at a disadvantage, being the only ones who would be forced to carry the extra costs of cutting CO2 emissions while foreign carriers continued to pollute freely.
But the green lobby said carbon dioxide emissions from ships are double those of aviation and could rise by as much as 75 per cent in the next 15 to 20 years if world trade continues to grow unchecked.
Evironmentalists also see shipping as a major source of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, including nitrogen (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx), which are responsible for acid rain.
While the aviation industry has been pressured to cap CO2 output, they say, shipping companies have not, and ships do not come under the Kyoto climate change accords or any other air pollution law.
Up till now, work on CO2 emissions from ships has been carried out by the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO), but that body has focused on quantifying emissions rather than reducing them.
The threat of unilateral action from the EU, which controls 41 per cent of the world's fleet, also risks a dispute with the US, which threatens legal action if the EU goes ahead with restrictive measures.
The specialist news agency said the EC confirmed on April 16 that it will propose adding shipping companies to the emissions trading scheme, the EU's principal tool for meeting its Kyoto commitments.
But European Community Shipowners' Association (ECSA) secretary general Alfons Guinier argued that world shipping produces fewer greenhouse gases per tonne-mile than any other form of transport, and its high emission volume resulted from the fact that ships carry 90 per cent of global trade.
Mr Guinier also said emissions trading schemes might well put European shipowners at a disadvantage, being the only ones who would be forced to carry the extra costs of cutting CO2 emissions while foreign carriers continued to pollute freely.
But the green lobby said carbon dioxide emissions from ships are double those of aviation and could rise by as much as 75 per cent in the next 15 to 20 years if world trade continues to grow unchecked.
Evironmentalists also see shipping as a major source of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, including nitrogen (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx), which are responsible for acid rain.
While the aviation industry has been pressured to cap CO2 output, they say, shipping companies have not, and ships do not come under the Kyoto climate change accords or any other air pollution law.
Up till now, work on CO2 emissions from ships has been carried out by the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO), but that body has focused on quantifying emissions rather than reducing them.
The threat of unilateral action from the EU, which controls 41 per cent of the world's fleet, also risks a dispute with the US, which threatens legal action if the EU goes ahead with restrictive measures.
