EU Climate Deal Must Address Shipping, Says Greens
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
The groups representing European Parliament's (EP) environment committee are urging European leaders to include international shipping in the global climate deal scheduled to be signed in Paris in December.
The 28 EU member states meet on 18 September to finalise their position for The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference (COP 21) to be held in Paris in December.
The heads of 7 of the 8 political groups of the EP's committee has written to the Environment Ministers of the 28 EU countries urging them to include shipping.
In the letter they noted that international shipping and aviation already accounted for 8% of global greenhouse gas and emissions from shipping were expected to grow by 50 – 250% by 2050.
“It is therefore of paramount importance that the text to be finalised in Paris includes a requirement for the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to increase their climate ambition and adopt measures to limit and reduce their sectors emissions in line with the overall objective of limiting the temperature increase to under two degrees Celsius,” the stated.
The European Parliament called last week for the establishment of an EU 2030 emissions reduction target for shipping and measures for the reduction of ships’ speed (slow steaming).
The IMO’s development of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) and Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) are the first-ever international agreements on CO2 emissions in any sector.