SHIPS’ CARBON OUTPUT TWICE PREVIOUS ESTIMATE - STUDY
02.15.08 - Leído 98 veces. Enviar esta notaStefano Ambrogi and Gerard Wynn
Emissions by global shipping of planet-warming carbon dioxide are more than double industry estimates and may rise another third by 2020 as trade grows, a report from the world’s top maritime body shows
LONDON, UK: February 15, 2008.- The scientific report commissioned by the UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO) estimates annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from world shipping reached 1.12 billion tonnes in 2007, about 3.5 percent of global carbon emissions.
The study also said growing international seaborne trade and related fuel consumption will raise CO2 emissions from ships by 30 percent to 1.475 billion tonnes by 2020.
The trillion-dollar industry, which carries more than 90 percent of the world’s traded goods by volume, has in the past frequently cited a carbon emissions figure for shipping of 1.4 percent of total greenhouse gases for 2000.
That figure was taken from a 2006 report prepared by former World Bank chief Nicholas Stern, which put shipping at slightly less than aviation and compared it with total transport emissions of 14 percent of CO2 emissions.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), a major industry body, has told Reuters in the past that a worst-case scenario put carbon emissions released by ships at between 3 to 4 percent of the world’s total.
“In essence whether its 2 percent, 3.5 percent or 5 percent is almost immaterial because the industry recognises that it’s part of the problem and it’s got to play its part in delivering solutions,” said ICS secretary Simon Bennett.
“We (shipping) are responsible for running the world economy, so it’s no surprise that we do produce significant emissions and it’s been down to the scientists to come up with estimates of what the percentage might be,” he said.
The new study by a group of industry experts was finalised by the IMO in late December but only distributed widely to officials party to IMO regulations, who met to draft new ship pollution regulations last week.
Shipping and aviation emissions are rising rapidly but are not accounted for in the international Kyoto Protocol on global warming, because of the complexity of attributing these emissions to individual states.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year said aviation CO2 emissions in 2002 were 492 million tonnes, far less than the IMO estimate, even though the airline industry has come under much more scrutiny.
The European Commission, which has chastised the industry for “lagging behind” other sectors, recently scrapped plans to include shipping emissions in its trading scheme but will include aviation.
(Reuters)
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