Shipping faces new turmoil in European Emissions Trading Scheme

The European Union is trying to introduce the maritime sector into its emissions trading system. This is a plan to impose new taxes on vessels servicing continental ports. This effort is part of the EU’s strategy to reduce overall greenhouse gases by more than half over the next decade, requiring factories, power plants and airlines to pay emissions by purchasing carbon permits.

This idea split the long-running shipping industry in a special regulatory area that recognizes the international nature of business. It can upset years of work to include shipping in global emission control efforts.

The EU plan will still take a few years to come to fruition, but has already been criticized by Japan, South Korea, Russia and Brazil. Officials in these large trading countries consider the additional charges on the cost of moving goods through European ports to be effective tariffs.

It also undermines the work of the International Maritime Organization, a division of the United Nations, the world’s maritime regulator, to advance pollution control regulations accepted by all 174 member states..