Earlier this month, the Financial Times revealed that France is lobbying for a greenhouse gas emissions tax to be imposed in the shipping industry. French officials seek to collaborate with other member states of the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) to agree on such a tax during the upcoming meeting in July.
The British newspaper adds that Japan, Denmark, Kenya, Panama, and Mexico have already jumped on board. In addition to governments, several industry associations and shipping giants support such a levy, including Danish carrier Maersk.
According to Shipping Watch, Simon Bergulf, Maersk’s head of regulatory affairs, told the Danish media, “A climate fee is necessary for our sector moving forward, and if we are to align ourselves with the Paris Agreement, something real has to happen. The longer we wait, the harder it gets.”
The concept of a carbon tax is seen as one of the effective ways to reduce the sector’s footprint. It would also play well in achieving the bigger goals set by the IMO and the EU to reach climate neutrality by 2050.
World Bank proposes a carbon tax concept
The World Bank has also been actively supporting the issuance of such a tax. The high-profile financial institution prepared a 60-page report suggesting this concept and intends to present it in July’s IMO meeting.
A shipping carbon tax could raise up to $60 billion each year, believes the World Bank. The returns could be used to support decarbonisation in the maritime world as well as fund port development projects.
The report, called “Distributing Carbon Revenues from Shipping,” goes into detail about options to spend carbon revenues, the selection of revenue recipients and the development of a distribution framework.
