Carbon Trade - Shiptalk

Posted may 30, 2010 - Shiptalk

Shipowners are backing a global carbon trading scheme that could add as much as €6 billion (£5.4 billion) in extra cost on to maritime transport and push weaker shipping companies out of business.

The proposals, announced yesterday by Britain’s Chamber of Shipping, would seek to bring the global shipping industry into a carbon trading net. The initiative, also backed by the national shipping associations of Australia, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, is intended to raise standards and stimulate technological development in an industry that has been widely criticized for its sluggishness in dealing with atmospheric pollution.

The shipping industry has no choice but to address its carbon emissions, Jan Kopernicki, vice-president of the UK chamber, said, since shipping accounted for 3 per cent of the global carbon emissions from human activity. The extent to which the cost of reducing emissions would be passed on to customers would depend on the state of the shipping market. Many shipowners are in distress because of the collapse in world trade.
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