Durban - The world shipping industry could accept a global
levy on carbon emissions from merchant ships under a deal that would also
channel proceeds to poor countries, according to an announcement at the UN
climate talks on Tuesday.
Maritime transport accounts for about 3% of world emissions
of greenhouse gases.
But, like the aviation industry, it does not have any
targeted curbs on this pollution, an omission green campaigners are fighting to
change.
In a joint statement, the International Chamber of Shipping
(ICS), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Oxfam said carbon emissions from
merchant ships could be subjected to "market-based measures" as an
incentive to reduce greenhouse gases.
Part of the revenue from this could go to a planned Green
Climate Fund that, in theory, will provide up to $100bn a year for developing
countries most at risk from climate change.
WWF's director of international climate policy, Keya
Chatterjee, said the deal was "an agreement in principle" and some
details, including the carbon price, needed to be hammered out in further
negotiations in the UN's specialised shipping organisation.
The ICS, which accounts for more than 80% of the world's
merchant fleet, prefers a straightforward levy but the WWF could accept other
options, she said.
Chatterjee described the accord as a breakthrough.
Failing to factor in the cost of fossil-fuel pollution from
transport was "a subsidy... an enormous failure," she told AFP.
The announcement was made on the second day of talks in
Durban under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
ICS secretary general Peter Hinchliffe said in the statement
that the rules should be crafted under the UN's International Maritime
Organisation (IMO), "with the same rules for carbon reduction applying to
all internationally trading ships, but in a manner which respects the
principles of the UN climate convention.
"If governments decide that shipping should contribute
to the UNFCCC 'Green Climate Fund'," said Hinchcliffe, "the industry
can probably support this in principle as long as the details are agreed at the
IMO, with the industry's clear preference for a market-based mechanism being a
compensation fund linked to the fuel consumption of ships, rather than an
emissions trading scheme."
Chatterjee said she hoped the UNFCCC talks, running until
December 9, would set a date by which the IMO would craft the rulebook.