<\/p>\n
Alfonso Castillero, Chief Operating Officer of the Liberian International Ship and\u00a0Corporate\u00a0Registry (LISCR) says,\u00a0\u201cWe understand the need for efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and continue to push for a cleaner environment,\u00a0as well as\u00a0a\u00a0more efficient\u00a0maritime industry. \u00a0However, at\u00a0least for international shipping,\u00a0it is vital we work toward\u00a0one\u00a0set of requirements established\u00a0by the International Maritime Organization (IMO),\u00a0avoiding\u00a0the creation of\u00a0a fractured system of regional requirements that reach\u00a0beyond their own waters,and assuring\u00a0a unified global effort to confront this\u00a0important\u00a0issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Castillero continues, \u201cThe\u00a0EU ETS scheme,\u00a0if implemented, should be applicable only to those waters of\u00a0EU\u00a0members, and not become a global scheme.\u00a0The EU ETS\u00a0scheme, if applied extraterritorially beyond intra-EU voyages,\u00a0will distort the global market situation\u00a0because\u00a0it will cover voyages\u00a0not only\u00a0within\u00a0the\u00a0EU, but also\u00a0voyages to and from\u00a0the\u00a0EU\u00a0as agreed by the EU Parliament.\u00a0\u00a0Like many other IMO member states, we remain committed to working with the EU on a collaborative effort to address the environmental challenges posed by greenhouse gas emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liberia agrees with the recent World Shipping Council\u00a0(WSC)\u00a0position that a unilateral\u00a0EU ETS scheme\u00a0would undermine\u00a0efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions\u00a0currently underway, including the proposal by\u00a0a broad coalition\u00a0of\u00a0industry\u00a0associations\u00a0to the IMO\u00a0for\u00a0the establishment of\u00a0an International Maritime Research and Development Board, funded by the industry, to accelerate the introduction of low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies and fuels for shipping. \u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Their paper highlighted the\u00a0serious concerns\u00a0around maritime emissions reduction\u00a0if the EU expands its\u00a0ETS to\u00a0include\u00a0international<\/em>\u00a0shipping.\u00a0Castillero\u00a0continues, \u201cThe most-discussed geographic application of the EU ETS\u00a0(that has now been agreed by the EU Parliament)\u00a0is to mirror the scope of existing EU legislation on Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon emissions.\u00a0While the\u00a0EU ETS has been described as a \u201cregional\u201d system, bringing international shipping into that system using the MRV scope would, in effect,regulate the operation of ships on several of the world\u2019s seas and oceans, including on the high seas and in waters adjacent to non-EU nations.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The 2019 EU Annual Report on CO2 Emissions, found that within Europe,\u00a0shipping transports 75% of EU\u2019s external trade, yet only accounted for 3.7% of emissions. \u00a0Maritime transport should continue to play a key role in a European climate neutral economy. In their report\u2019s own words:\u00a0\u201cWaterborne transport is already one of the most energy-efficient modes of transport available.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n LISCR stresses that it needs to be fully understood that taxation costs incurred from an ETS will be distributed to the supply and value chains, which will have a genuine impact on the costs of ocean transport.\u00a0\u00a0If the EU were to apply its ETS to shipping using the same geographic scope as the EU\u2019s existing\u00a0MRVregulation, the effect would be to apply a financial charge on voyages that in some cases stretch halfway around the world.\u00a0 Over half of the covered emissions would result from voyages outside of EU waters.\u00a0As part of the application to voyages into and out of EU ports, if the ETS provisions\u00a0were to\u00a0follow the MRV scope they would also apply to emissions associated with cargoes that are transshipped through the EU, but that are not EU imports or exports.\u00a0 This would have a particularly disproportionate effect on developing countries,\u00a0an issue\u00a0which is a key concern to Liberia.\u00a0\u00a0This opens up the very real prospect of trade and tax retaliation on a global scale.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In addition to adding cost and complexity to international shipping, the application of one or more national or regional carbon pricing mechanisms, as already\u00a0mentioned,\u00a0wouldentrench such unilateral measures, making it more difficult to reach a uniform, effective, and global solution through the\u00a0IMO.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Liberia echoes its support for the\u00a0IMO to continue to push forward its decarbonization goals, and safely navigate the regulations resulting from them.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ??The Liberian Registry has a long-established track record of combining the highest standards of safety for vessels and crews with the highest levels of responsive and innovative service to owners. Moreover, it has a well-deserved reputation for supporting international legislation designed to maintain and improve the safety and effectiveness of the shipping industry and protection of the marine environment.\u00a0www.liscr.com<\/a><\/p>\n gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alfonso Castillero, Chief Operating Officer of the Liberian International Ship and\u00a0Corporate\u00a0Registry (LISCR) says,\u00a0\u201cWe understand the need for efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and continue to push for a cleaner environment,\u00a0as well as\u00a0a\u00a0more efficient\u00a0maritime industry. \u00a0However, at\u00a0least for international shipping,\u00a0it is vital we work toward\u00a0one\u00a0set of requirements established\u00a0by the International Maritime Organization (IMO),\u00a0avoiding\u00a0the creation of\u00a0a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1582,12341,1148,2116,12339,2117,6215,62,12340],"class_list":["post-19492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-emissions","tag-implementation","tag-international","tag-liberian","tag-opposed","tag-registry","tag-scheme","tag-shipping","tag-unilateral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/19493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}