European shipowners’ body berates EU Emissions Trading ‘threat’

ECSA secretary general Patrick Verhoeven brands the proposal as both “disappointing” in that it “ignores and undermines” the IMO roadmap agreed as recently as end October, and “very counterproductive” in its “threatening with regional measures under unrealistic deadlines.”

“We agree that the shipping sector must further reduce its CO2 emissions with a comparable level of ambition as the rest of the world economy to contribute its fair and proportionate share in meeting the Paris’ climate target,” admitted Verhoeven, conceding the point made by Port of Rotterdam and other that the roadmap does not go far enough. “But this can only happen effectively in a global context,” he adds.

Verhoeven explained that the IMO roadmap has a two-staged approach, with an initial strategy to be decided in 2018, and a final plan to be adopted in 2023, taking into account real emission data that will start to be collected as of 2019.

“The IMO plan is entirely consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015,” he argued. “It is a logical follow-up to technical and operational measures taken earlier such as the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) and Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) adopted in 2011 to ensure that ships will be more CO2 efficient in the future.”

Including shipping in the EU ETS scheme, either directly or indirectly through a European Climate Fund, would negatively impact trade and jobs, he argues. Also, the setting up of a proposed Maritime Climate Fund raises a host of legal and competition issues that will likely take several years to resolve, in which time the IMO would be perfectly able to set its own strategy, he feels.

“Paradoxically however, the threat of a European fund – or any unilateral EU measure – will prevent this,” Verhoeven concluded.

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