If the ES capsized shipping emissions suggestions? - Maritime News

Posted - December 30, 2010 - Maritime News

Any attempt to bring shipping into the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) may be open to legal challenges, according to new research by the European Commission.
Maritime transport produces about four per cent of global man-made CO2 emissions, but there are currently no regulations in place to curb the sector’s growing carbon footprint.
Sluggish progress towards an international agreement, which the maritime sector insists is the best way to curb emissions, prompted the EU to declare it would include the sector’s emissions in the EU ETS from 2013 if an international deal is not agreed by the end of next year.
But a report published this week by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) appeared to torpedo the EU’s plans, warning that EU countries would be unable to enforce restrictions on ships flying flags of convenience from outside the bloc.
Moreover, international shipping law affirms that “states shall not discriminate in form or in fact against vessels of any other state”, which means nations attempting to prevent non-compliant ships from docking or passing through territorial waters could face legal action.
“There is currently no strong legal basis for the EU to exercise extra-territorial jurisdiction, and this is likely to give non-EU states and industry bodies grounds for challenging carbon emissions reduction measures adopted by the EU for maritime transport,” the report concludes.
It goes on to analyze the best methods of estimating emissions from shipping and sets out a range of alternative policy options for reducing the level of emissions from the sector.
Shipping has the lowest ratio of CO2 emissions per ton of any transport option, but its total greenhouse gas (GHG) output is expected to shoot up by an estimated 150 to 200 per cent over the next four decades as global trade increases. The industry’s sulphur dioxide emissions are also forecast to rise 10-20 per cent over the next two years alone.
The report says that the voluntary technical measures so far agreed by international maritime bodies to improve fuel efficiency and ship design are not enough to reduce emissions and must be supplemented with market-based mechanisms.
While it notes that the EU ETS provides a “definite window of opportunity, without placing an unnecessarily heavy burden on the sector”, a lack of agreement over allowance allocation and the mobile nature and diversity of craft in the sector makes inclusion in the scheme very difficult, regardless of the legal implications.
Research, Innovation and Science commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: “This JRC report underlines why pollution from shipping, like that from many other sources, needs to be reduced both to help tackle climate change and to prevent severe damage to human health.”
However, the report could also provide a boost to a group of US airlines that are currently pursuing legal action against the EU over its decision to include flights to and from the bloc in the ETS.

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