Intertanko, the inclusion of shipping in the EU's ETS on emissions risks damaging the EU's foreign trade

"Intertanko's associates- explained Katharina Stanzel, the association's chief executive, welcomed the The European Parliament's decision to include international and internal EU maritime trade in the EU ETS emissions trading system. We still have to assess the overall consequences of this measure, but this could seriously undermine the efforts undertaken by the IMO as part of its strategy to reduce gas emissions international shipping."

Stanzel pointed out that the effect of the decision is wide-ranging as it covers all ships of more than 5,000 tonnes of gross scale that scale the ports of the European Union, regardless of their other destinations, and recalled that This means that ships will have to buy quotas for each ton of CO2 emitted during all of these Travel. He also pointed out that the EU proposal includes the establishment of an Ocean Fund to collect money from ships and that it is suggested that 20% of these funds should be used for the "restoration and better management of marine ecosystems" while it is not known that share of the funds will be reserved indispensable projects that develop and implement solutions to decarbonise international shipping, such as the International Maritime Organization's strategy (IMO).

"This proposal - noted the Technical Director of Intertanko, Dragos Rauta - would have serious consequences for trade trade with EU countries as quotas should be purchased for all CO2 emissions reported under the terms of the current EU MRV Regulation (the monitoring system, communication and verification of CO2 emissions based on consumption ship fuel set up under EU Regulations 2015/757, ndrndr)'.

"Based on the total CO2 emissions communicated to the THETIS MRV of the EU for 2018 (142.5 million tonnes) and for 2019 (135.7 million tonnes) and based on the current price 25 per unit (price per tonne of carbon emissions) CO2) - rauta specified - the total cost for ships scale in EU ports could be as high as 3.5 billion eur a year, with a significant burden on ships engaged in long routes.'

Intertanko also pointed out that, although the current ETS directive is described as a "regional" system, however, much of the commercial trade operated by ships tanker with the EU is connected to destinations outside Union and, therefore, the additional costs would also have a impact on THE EU's trading partners, with related concerns diplomatic scope, which has yet to be assessed, a unilaterally imposed emission tax.