Shipping and CO2 targets

The EU is expected to call for emissions from both maritime transport and aviation to be included as overall targets set by any new UNFCCC agreement on climate change (to replace the Kyoto Protocol) and – most unhelpfully – be included in the national emissions totals in the country of departure or arrival.Shipping fully accepts its responsibility to reduce its CO2 emissions, and that this will need to be addressed by the post-Kyoto regime. However, the details of how such reductions can be delivered should be determined by IMO, so that the same measures are applied regardless of a ship’s flag. Shipping is more complicated than aviation, given multiple port calls during sea voyages and because the beneficiaries of cargo transported are far harder to determine. Measures appropriate for aircraft may not be so for ships. The industry can deliver meaningful emission reductions through a combination of fuel efficiency measures and new technology, perhaps reducing emissions, per tonne of cargo transported one kilometre, by as much as 15% by 2020. But governments would be very unwise to commit themselves to absolute targets for the shipping industry as a whole, either nationally or internationally. The amount of shipping required is simply a function of trade. If the world population and economy continue to expand, shipping will need to expand too. Since shipping is already by far the most carbon efficient form of commercial transport, modal shift towards shipping from less efficient forms of transport would be discouraged by the adoption of targets for the sector as a whole.

Source: Transportweekly