World Shipping Must Act on Air Emissions - ICS
Date: 12-Dec-07
Country: UK
Author: Stefano Ambrogi
Tony Mason, secretary general of the influential industry body, called on the sector that carries 90 percent of the world's traded goods by volume to act in a comprehensive way and as quickly as possible.
"We at ICS believe it is absolutely vital that conclusions are reached and improved standards adopted during 2008," Mason told a ship emissions conference in London.
"If governments and industry cannot between them deliver bankable solutions within this deadline, we shall see a serious disenchantment with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) process, and a proliferation of local regulations, led in all probability by the EU and the United States," he said.
PRESSURE BUILDING
Shipping, unlike aviation, has largely escaped close attention over emissions, but pressure is building. In late November, the European Commission urged the IMO to do more.
Commission Vice President Margot Wallstrom said both shipping and aviation were "lagging behind" and were not helping European Union plans to extend its carbon market.
The United Nations' IMO, the world's top maritime body responsible for regulating the industry, is due to report by the end of this year on a way forward to combat emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas.
The shipping industry, with a fleet of up to 60,000 ocean-going vessels, also accounts for about 10 percent of sulphur dioxide emissions and large amounts of toxic nitrous oxide, gases which cause acid rain and deplete the ozone layer.
Ships also produce particulate emissions.
The IMO is busily reviewing current marine pollution laws, known as MARPOL Annex VI, adopted by countries in 1997, but that only came into force globally in 2005.
Because of the delay the regulations are seen as inadequate and unable to address huge concerns over how much sea-based transportation contributes to global warming, industry experts say. IMO's review is expected to set out far more stringent standards on completion.
One problem the industry has is establishing how much CO2 fuel-burning ships create. A further obstacle is that like aviation, emissions from shipping are not covered by the Kyoto protocol on global warming.
A figure that is frequently cited by the industry is a report by former World Bank chief Nicholas Stern, which estimated emissions at just less than two percent in 2000 compared with 15 percent made by transportation as a whole.
Critics say the level is much higher and figure fails to take account of fast expanding seaborne trade, which by the industry's own admission surged by 50 percent in the last 15 years.
"The worst case I've seen is 3 to 4 percent of emissions, which is credible - there's no scientific basis for the others," Mason said.
"Projections are outside our control and that's half the problem. The weakness that we have as an industry is that we can act to reduce CO2 emissions, but do not have mathematical models to say what they will be," he said.
"It's rather like running on a treadmill and then trying to stand still."
(Editing by Anthony Barker)
