Brussels, 19/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - European shipowners say that they are concerned by the European Parliament's ambitious vote constituting the MEPs' mandate for the COP 21 and a demand for a swift adoption of measures to reduce CO2 emissions from the international maritime transport sector (see EUROPE 11411).
According to ECSA, (European Community Shipowners Associations), calling on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to adopt measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the sector in 2016 is “unrealistic”.
On Friday 16 October, Patrick Verhoeven, ECSA secretary general, said: “We are happy to see that the European Parliament recognises the importance of a global solution for international shipping and gives a vote of confidence to the IMO, which should be allowed to pursue its efforts. We are, however, also concerned by the deadline adopted by MEPs on Wednesday. 2016 is right around the corner and as such it is rather unrealistic to expect the IMO to come up with a solution in a matter of months”. He warned, however that “A unilateral European push for a hard deadline may be counterproductive”. ECSA has said that the 2016 deadline does not correspond to the position put forward by the EU. Benoit Loicq, ECSA safety and environment director said: “By pushing for an extremely tight deadline, the EU would essentially undermine the IMO procedure”.
ECSA points out that the Energy efficiency Design Index - EEDI, recently adopted by the IMO requires ships built after 2025 to be 30% more efficient than those built during the years 2000.
Organisations promoting clean transport urge UN to take action
Although the EU is calling for international civil aviation and international maritime transport to be included in the Paris climate agreement, the draft negotiating text for the COP21 does not make any mention of international maritime transport or civil aviation equivalent, much to the regret of the organisations promoting clean and sustainable transport.
The Clean Maritime Transport Coalition and the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation (ICSA) wrote to the UN on Monday 19 October calling on it to take immediate action with regard to the negotiating parties and guarantee that the formulation in the previous drafts of the text on emissions from the two sectors is reintroduced, so that the sectors adopt credible targets and measures. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)