Shipping industry faces appeals for global levy as it sets net-zero target

Antonio Guterres led calls on the worldwide shipping industry to step up to the climate challenge by not only adopting a 2050 net-zero target but agreeing on a global levy on ships to achieve it at a summit in London this week.

The International Maritime Organisation is deciding how to cut greenhouse gases from an activity that contributes 3 per cent of emissions. Delegates have been asked to overcome divisions on the surcharge that UN Secretary General Mr Guterres described as necessary to keep the world on a pathway to capping global warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate change committee executive secretary, also pushed for more political engagement from the maritime industry on the 1.5°C target in the run up to the Cop28 meetings which open in UAE in November. He warned against complacency from the states that make up the rule-setting organisation amid calls for faster reform that increases compliance with the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Efforts to decarbonise so far centre on a 2018 IMO decision that instructed shipping firms to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 per cent by 2050, from 2008 levels. The target is considered insufficient given the level of global emissions and compared to other industries, including aviation, which is aiming for net zero by the same midcentury deadline.

The revised strategy is looking for a 20-25 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases in 2030 and up to 70 per cent in 2040. The language in the talks for net zero is either 2050, with some caveats, or by the middle of the century. These measures are set to gain backing even though some countries have said a net-zero commitment does not capture how the industry can change its operations to meet climate goals.

Although the measure would be adopted in 2025 and rolled out two years later, the type of tax or level is still to be determined in talks this week.

The idea is that the funds collected from a universal IMO carbon levy should contribute towards funding a just, fair and equitable transition to a net-zero economy. Advocates of the measure want to set a rate of $100 per tonne of greenhouse gas. The surcharge on the ship fuel consumed could raise up to $80bn a year.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News

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