By Justin Stares, Brussels - Friday 14 March 2008
Emissions trading will eventually have to apply to shipping.
THE maritime industry must “wake up” and do something about its emissions before ships are denied entry into European ports, according to Jacques Barrot’s cabinet chief. Industry executives are “dreaming” if they think they will escape new legislation designed to cut emissions such as sulphur and carbon dioxide, said cabinet chief Benoit Le Bret.
Talking to Lloyd’s List, the commissioner’s closest collaborator said some executives were “not intelligent enough” to accept that ship fuel is highly polluting. The maritime industry was “not as mature” as the aviation industry, which had accepted the need to include it in Europe’s trading scheme. “The trading scheme will eventually have to apply to shipping, that is my personal opinion,” said Mr Le Bret. “It will come one day. But the maritime world is less mature than aviation.
They do not consider, as aviation does, the risk that if they don’t come up with a solution for polluting less, they are at risk of having worse scenarios being imposed.” The climate change debate has changed the face of politics, said Mr Le Bret. “The maritime industry will not be able to escape,” he said. Some executives were “not intelligent enough.
They have to consider that they product they put in their engine is not one of the cleanest. They are dreaming if they think they will escape. One day a ship will arrive in a harbour and be told ‘go back home.’ The maritime sector has to be more aware. It has to wake up.” Global solutions were better than regional, the cabinet chief admitted.
One solution would be a regional trading scheme for shipping which recognised equivalent schemes elsewhere in the world, he said, thereby overcoming fears of retaliation. The commission is examining solutions for shipping emissions, including a trading scheme, and is at the same time pushing for action in the International Maritime Organization. “We will have to say something about shipping in June,” Mr Le Bret said, adding however that this would probably be too early for a definitive solution.
On the package of maritime safety legislation now working its way through the EU institutions, he warned that time was running out if laws were to reach the statue books in the current legislative cycle. “We need an intelligent compromise. The package is not set in stone,” he said, referring to the two controversial proposals — on flag state control and civil liability — that have until now held up the other five draft laws. On the maritime space without frontiers initiative, now being drawn up, Mr Le Bret said its was “proving difficult” because it was likely to interfere with other polices in areas such as immigration, tax and Customs.
* The International Chamber of Commerce’s Committee on Maritime Transport has added to the pressure on the IMO, urging it to adopt new emissions control standards when it meets in April and October this year, writes Neville Smith. “Stricter global standards are urgently needed” on SOx, NOx and particulate emission levels, it said. It also said that measures to address greenhouse gas emissions from ships are also necessary. But the ICC urged its member states to “wait until the IMO makes its amendments to the treaty, which ICC expects will set strict enough standards so that no further action will be required”.
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