The ICS, with Intercargo, presents a proposal to tax globally the carbon emissions of ships

The new proposal of the International Chamber of Shipping, which does not replace but is added to that for the fund of five billion and which is supported by the shipowners' association of fleets of bulk carriers Intercargo, in fact provides for the taxation of world level of carbon emissions from ships, taxation tax - highlighted the ICS - which would be the first of this kind for any industrial sector. To this end, Friday the association has asked the United Nations to be taken in considering a market-based measure accepted at the level international in order to accelerate the adoption and use of zero-carbon marine fuels.

The proposal submitted to the International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of overseeing the security of the maritime transport and the prevention of pollution caused from ships, provides that the tax is made in the form of mandatory taxes for each tonne of CO2 emitted by vessels of gross tonnage more than 5 thousand tons.

This new proposal of the ICS also provides for the establishment of a fund (IMO Climate Fund) with the resources generated by this taxation, which, however, should be used to fill the price gap between conventional marine fuels and those with zero carbon emissions as well as to achieve ports around the world the necessary bunkering infrastructure to provide ships with fuels such as hydrogen or ammonia.

In addition, the new Fund would have the task of calculating the climate contributions to be paid by ships, collect them and make sure that this tax has been levied. The ICS has specified that, in order to minimize the burdens for states and ensure the rapid establishment of the tax on carbon, the new system should make use of the mechanisms already proposed for the five billion R&D fund dollars proposed less than two years ago, system that - is the wish of the International Chamber of Shipping - should be approved by the IMO in November immediately after COP26, the summit of the UN on climate change to be held in Glasgow from first to 12 November next.

Illustrating the new proposal, the Secretary General of the ICS, Guy Platten, explained that "what the transport of Maritime needs is a measure like this based on the market and truly global that will reduce the price gap between zero-carbon fuels and fuels Conventional. The rapid development of such a mechanism - stressed - it is time of a vital necessity if the governments want to act as well as rhetoric and show that they maintain a leading role in the decarbonization of shipping."

"There is no doubt - continued Platten - that the technological improvements can allow the transition to a zero-emission maritime transport. However they must be still made huge strides if we want to be able to implement at scale. This includes construction the infrastructure needed to support this transition. We need to be able to put zero-emission ships in the water by 2030 without price and security issues. If the IMO assures its support for our proposal - he specified the Secretary General of the ICS - then we may still be in able to change this situation and distribute technologies in economic and fair way".

When submitting its proposal for a measure based on the worldwide market for shipping, the ICS is back to reject the hypothesis of adopting such a measure unilaterally or at regional level, such as the proposal of the European Commission to extend the allowance trading system of EU issuance to international maritime transport ( of 14 July 2021).

"The World Bank and numerous studies - he highlighted Platten - concluded that the measure based on the global market more appropriate to reduce carbon emissions of shipping is a tax-based system. The adoption of the our proposal for a system based on taxation will avoid the volatility of allowance trading systems emissions, such as the EU ETS, which in the case of maritime transport - has remarked the Secretary General of the ICS - seems more suitable to generate revenues given to governments by shipping that it is not part of the EU rather than helping maritime transport to decarbonize. A system based on taxation - he concluded Platten - can give the industry price certainty and more stability to make decisions about investments in zero-carbon ships and the development of technologies for the reduction of emissions'.