EU ETS – CUS PROPOSAL
European Union Emissions Trading System for Shipping (EU ETS)
On 16th September 2020, the EU Parliament, putting aside the Shipowners' orchestrated strong opposition, by a strong 70% majority voted for the inclusion of Shipping in the EU ETS.
The implementation of this new scheme is 1st January 2022.
Its main objective is to establish a "Green Fund" for Research and Development to promote innovative technologies and infrastructure to decarbonise the maritime transport sector.
The Commission initiated a Public Consultation with Stakeholders in November 2020, in order to discuss the optimum way of implementing ETS. On December 7th 2020, the Cypriot Ministry of Shipping in coordination with our Union invited the EU decision makers (Deputy Director of DG KLIMA) along with NGO’s and Shipowners to discuss ETS over a live debate.
In the circumstances where the ETS is adopted irreversibly by the EU, the President of our Union, A. Hadjiyiannis, aimed at shifting the burden of payment of the ETS allowances from the Shipowner to the cargo transporter.
The Union's President took the opportunity to highlight to Ms. Clara de la Torre, Deputy Director-General of Directorate General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA), European Commission and Ms. Magdalena Adamowicz, MEP, Member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, European Parliament the fact that after spending billions of Euros to reduce the SOX through the fitting of scrubbers there is little the ship (on today's technology and available means of energy) can do to reduce further the CO2 Emissions. This can only be done by the optimisation of sea trade.
Mr. Hadjiyiannis went to the length of putting forward a detailed analysis showing that the ETS is only meaningful if it is directed to the cargo transporter. Ms De la Torre, appreciated the merits of the argument and requested a more detailed analysis of the proposal. In this respect CUS President prepared and sent the attached report.
The proposal's final outcome is twofold. Firstly, it proves that in order for any ETS to be efficient, it should be addressed to the decision maker which is the Transporter and not the Shipowner. Secondly, the ETS should incentivise the Transporters to organise their Logistics to allow necessary margins, among other measures, for the vessel to proceed at the optimum speed in order to reduce the GHG emissions related to the transportation of their cargo.
Ms De la Torre already responded officially to the CUS President, on Tuesday 12 January acknowledging that the proposal is of significant potential and EU will be looking at very carefully during the drafting of the EU ETS.
The Union will closely monitor this matter and keep the Members updated with the developments of this hot issue.
Related Article:
Attachment: EU ETS - The Proposal