World maritime day: Higher carbon and fossil fuel taxes necessary to incentivize shipping to make the necessary investments towards a zero emissions future
Image: MV Baru from the Maiden voyage in Bunbury Australia
The theme for this year’s World Maritime Day is “Sustainable shipping for a sustainable planet", and the shipping industry has a huge task going forward in improving our environmental footprint within areas such as cleanliness of ballast water, reduction in marine litter and perhaps most important in reducing green house gas emissions.
Sustainability is finally high on the agenda in the shipping industry among shipowners, charterers and governments around the world. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has started the transition towards a sustainable future and has adopted and will continue to develop measures to push the industry in the right direction. In addition, we saw last week European lawmakers agreeing to include international carbon emissions from the maritime sector in the EU carbon market from 2021.
It is however questionable, whether these measures will be enough to increase the speed of the decarbonization of the shipping industry. Higher taxes on fossil fuels and/or carbon pricing will be necessary going forward to incentivize shipping to make the necessary investments and to start using low carbon fuels and eventually zero emission fuels.
Klaveness Combination Carriers offers today the most carbon efficient deep-sea dry bulk and tanker shipping solution and has set ambitious environmental targets including reaching IMO’s 2030 carbon intensity targets within 2022 and becoming carbon neutral within 2030. We have several ongoing initiatives both when it comes to operational efficiency and technical solutions to save fuel.
We have also tested sustainable biofuel in 2020 and are progressing in our work to develop future zero-emission solutions. The industry has a long way to go, and we are strong supporters of new international regulations that can increase the speed of decarbonizing of the shipping industry.
Did you know….
that a large part of dry bulk and tanker vessels are sailing empty for up to 50% of the time. Take for example a standard bulk vessel. She would typically ballast travelling from Far East to Australia to pick up cargo due to imbalances in export/import of commodities.
This is a huge waste, as the vessel emits green house gases without transporting anything. Klaveness Combination Carriers’ vessels on the other hand are laden in both directions as the vessels are built to transport both dry and wet products.
