The Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted in July to include CO2 emissions from the maritime sector under the EU ETS, and the EU Commission also expressed support for the proposal.

This is part of the larger EU Green Deal negotiations about what regulatory and financial frameworks will be used to combat maritime shipping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

In a recent discussion paper WSC said the geographical scope of an EU ETS using the travel parameters used in the EU MRV regulation is broad and will set an unparalleled degree of control over extraterritorial travels.

“This question of the geographic scope of any ETS system for shipping must be addressed before the European Commission can turn to the many technical details that would be involved in creating such a system. If the current MRV geographic scope is used, a majority of the emissions covered by the system would occur outside EU waters, in many cases from voyages extending thousands of miles across the globe,” stated WSC President and CEO John Butler.

The council said the geographic scope is the same as the reporting regime for MRV GHG, the framework will also cover large volumes of cargo that are not part of EU trade at all but are transported through EU ports.

This will involve several less developed countries (LDCs) facing an additional tax on their trade simply because their products are being transported through the EU.

Maritime Business World