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Ships entering or leaving EU ports would be required to purchase credits for the greenhouse gases that they emit.
In the midst of a diplomatic row over the inclusion of aviation in the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS), the European Commission is to propose bringing maritime transport into the scheme.
All ships entering or leaving EU ports would be required to purchase credits for the greenhouse gases that they emit. This would correspond to the requirement that was introduced for aircraft in January.
The Commission is obliged to propose a market-based mechanism to reduce shipping emissions because a meeting last week of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) failed to make headway on creating a global agreement to reduce emissions. The EU's 2009 ETS law requires that the Commission act unilaterally to reduce shipping emissions, as it did with aviation, if there is no global solution by December 2011.
While the IMO was meeting last week, Chinese media were claiming that Hong Kong Airlines would cancel an aircraft order with Airbus in retaliation for the EU's insistence on including foreign airlines in the ETS system. European media reports then cited Berlin sources as saying Germany was reversing its support for including aviation in the ETS.
But Hong Kong Airlines would not confirm that it had made any such threat, and this week the German environment and economy ministers issued a joint statement insisting that they still support the Commission in its battle with foreign airlines. Complete Post at:
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/commission-sets-sights-on-including-shipping-in-ets/73782.aspx
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