Shipping’s contribution to Green Climate Fund blocked at COP 17

Shipping’s contribution to the Green Climate Fund through a carbon tax levy was blocked as the UN climate talks in Durban drew to a close.

Despite the fund to aid nations most susceptible to climate change being established in South Africa last week, delegates from the 190 participating nations failed to agree on where the US$100 billion of funding a year would come from.

In drafting the design for the Green Climate Fund it was the United States that ensured that any reference to the specifics of financial sources was removed, this included funds from international shipping.

China, India, Australia, Korea and Brazil joined the United States in agreeing that the funds should be taken from national budgets rather than industry.

However, with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) firmly behind the idea that shipping has a part to play in contributing to the Green Climate Fund, there is a general consensus that shipping could contribute funds in the future. The ICS represents over 80 percent of the world’s merchant fleet.

Lat month, the ICS joined forces with both Oxfam and the WWF in support of a maritime carbon levy. Speaking before the conclusion of the UNFCCC negotiations in Durban, ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe, commented that “the industry can probably support this in principle as long as the details are agreed at the IMO.”

Hinchcliffe added that shippers had a “clear preference for a Market Based Mechanism being a compensation fund linked to the fuel consumption of ships, rather than an emissions trading scheme.”

The shipping industry currently accounts for three percent of the world’s greenhouse gases; however, much like the aviation industry, legislation and law-binding targets to curb emissions has yet to be established.

 

Image 01: Martin Pettitt | Flickr

Image 02: Roberto Venturini | Flickr