Brussels, 19/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission launched an on-line public consultation on Thursday 19 January on possible measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships. At this point, four options are on the table: - a compensation fund; - an emissions trading scheme (ETS); - a fuel or emissions tax; - compulsory reduction of vessel emissions.
All the stakeholders to whom the consultation is addressed - European citizens, organisations, experts, industries, institutions, NGOs, and public authorities of EU member states - are invited to complete a questionnaire. They will have until 12 April 2012 to submit their responses, which will be duly taken into consideration by the Commission in drafting its legislative proposal.
With no international agreement having been reached on reducing greenhouse gases from maritime transport, the time has come for the EU to act to include emissions from this sector in its efforts to tackle climate change. The climate legislative package that was adopted in 2009 (revised ETS directive 2009/29/EC and Decision 406/2009/EC on the sharing of effort among member states) stated that, in the event of no international agreement being found before the end of 2011, the Commission should bring forward a proposal to ensure that the maritime sector bear its share of the efforts being made by the EU to achieve the target of a 20% reduction in its emissions in all sectors by 2020.
Negotiations within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the necessary technical, operational and market-based measures for reducing emissions from new and existing ships have, so far, made only limited progress. International maritime transport already produces 3% of global emissions - and this is predicted to more than double by 2050 if no additional action is taken. To log on to the consultation, go to: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/consultations/0014/index_en.htm (AN/transl.rt)