Shipping hurdle for UK emissions targets

By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent
Published: June 1 2009 00:06

Government claims that the UK’s carbon dioxide output has dropped by more than a 10th since 1990 might not be true if greenhouse gas emissions from shipping are included, an influential group of MPs will say on Monday.
The environmental audit committee, in a report on shipping emissions, said it was not possible to gauge the full extent of emissions from shipping as they were not counted towards the UK’s targets under the Kyoto protocol and were not covered by the European Union’s emissions trading scheme.

But the committee said shipping was a big source of greenhouse gases and should be monitored. Emissions from shipping are thought to have doubled since 1990, though accurate figures are not available.
Tim Yeo, chairman of the committee, called for shipping to be included in international talks on a successor to the Kyoto treaty, the main provisions of which expire in 2012.
He said: “We deplore the prevarication that has prevented global agreement on how to reduce emissions from international shipping. The shipping industry accepts the seriousness of climate change but has taken little or no action to cut its own emissions in absolute terms. Meanwhile, the government has failed to give this issue the attention it deserves.”
The committee said the government should replace its current system of estimating shipping emissions based on sales of maritime fuel bunkers in the UK, which it claimed ministers admitted was likely to underestimate the true figures.
The MPs also urged the government to begin tackling emissions from shipping before any international agreement by including shipping in the UK’s “carbon budgets”. Under last year's Climate Change Act, the government must monitor and put policies in place to cut the country’s emissions.
They said ships could be charged for excess greenhouse gas emissions by imposing a system of port dues that would vary according to the environmental performance of ships.
In the report, the committee also called for a review of ways of reducing emissions from ships, for instance by more efficient design and by ensuring that ships had shorter waiting times to dock at harbours.
They held out the promise of the UK becoming a “global leader in the creation of technologies that can be retrofitted to existing ships”, for instance through low-carbon propulsion systems, given the current lack of alternatives to oil-driven engines.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009