Ship Emissions Must Be In Targets

7 November 2011

The UK's share of emissions from international shipping should be included in targets to cut the country's greenhouse gases, climate advisers announced last week

Ship emissions to be targeted in a further bid to reduce climate change

He said they were "too big and too worrying to forget about", the Committee on Climate Change's chief executive, David Kennedy, said emissions from shipping need to be part of the overall goal to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050.

Neither international shipping nor aviation are currently included in the long-term targets or the five-yearly emissions limits known as carbon budgets.

A report from the committee estimates that under the legally binding targets in the Climate Change Act shipping could account for up to 11 percent of the total greenhouses gases the UK is allowed to emit.

Analysis by the committee shows that emissions from shipping accounts for around 12-16m tonnes of greenhouse gases, which is currently only a small percentage of the 570m tonnes emitted by the UK as a whole.

As emissions fall under efforts to move the UK to a low-carbon economy, however, shipping's share of total greenhouse gases will inevitably grow.

A range of technical and operational measures have been suggested, such as using towing kites to allow ships to use wind energy, installing solar panels to reduce energy use, cleaning hulls more often to reduce drag and cutting the speed at which the vessels travel to save fuel. Biofuels could also play a role.

Kennedy said international action such as an emissions cap and trade scheme or a global levy on fossil fuels would encourage the shipping industry to bring in measures to cut their greenhouse gases.

If there is no progress on a global deal to tackle shipping emissions, the EU has said it will move the sector into its emissions trading scheme, something which Kennedy said was not ideal but might be a second best option.

The committee will provide formal advice to the Government on including shipping and aviation in the carbon budgets next spring.

www.theccc.org.uk

Darrel Moore