A group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with observer status at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has heavily criticised IMO’s head’s claims that including shipping in the EU Emission Trading System (EU-ETS) could undermine efforts to reduce global shipping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
In a letter to IMO’s secretary-general Kitack Lim, the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) said that it did not think it was appropriate for Lim in his role as head of “an essentially unelected body” to interfere in the EU internal democratic process.
“The decision to include shipping in the EU ETS was taken by the European Parliament, whose members are directly elected by European citizens and therefore have direct legitimacy in EU policy-making,” the CSC said.
“Your actions are of particular concern since the EU measure you object to is a timely and balanced response to the urgent problem of growing ship emissions, and is designed to help the EU meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement and thereby help prevent catastrophic climate change” the group added.
Lim’s warning:
Lim had warned against extending the EU-ETS to include ships, while recognising that member states might want to enhance progress made to date, in a letter to the European Parliament’s president Martin Schulz, European Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council’s president Donald Tusk.
He added: “I am concerned that a final decision to extend the EU-ETS to shipping emissions would not only be premature but would seriously impact on the work of IMO to address GHG emissions from international shipping.”
“Inclusion of emissions from ships in the EU-ETS significantly risks undermining efforts on a global level.”
The decision to include shipping emissions in the EU-ETS from 2023 if the IMO fails to deliver a global agreement deal was taken in December last year by the Environment Committee of the European Parliament.
IMO’s commitment to GHG:
At the MEPC70 meeting in October 2016, the IMO committed to a GHG roadmap with initial CO2 reduction commitments to be agreed by 2018.
The CSC said in a statement: “This global deal is what IMO promised at [the meeting] with the adoption of its GHG roadmap. It begs the question, to what extent does the IMO have faith in its own promises?”
John Maggs, CSC president and shipping advisor to Seas at Risk, said: “There is nothing that says action can only take place at IMO and indeed it would be counterproductive to concentrate only on the development of IMO measures when processes there are often subject to delay.”
“The IMO’s criticism of EU action is unfortunate and we call on Mr. Secretary-General to take stock and press IMO members to urgently agree on targets and measures at a global level.”
Did you subscribe for our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source: Clean Shipping Coalition, Seas at Risk
