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Emissions: Now it's up to the shipping industry!

It's about time: the EU Parliament is in favour of emissions payments for ships.

The ocean liners have not been affected by emissions trading so far. This is absolutely absurd, considering the level of pollutant emissions in this segment compared to road transport (we reported). Now the EU Parliament is finally putting its foot down and in the middle of this week agreed by a large majority to include all shipping in emissions trading from January 2022. Cruise ships use so-called heavy fuel oil, as do container ships. Many giant steamers consume the waste material from oil production in huge quantities, some up to 150 tonnes a day. This is equivalent to around 450 kilograms of particulate matter per day. This value corresponds to the emissions of 21.5 million VW Passat diesel vehicles. It is a huge business to pay for this entire cruise industry in the future. 
"The European tax authorities are currently foregoing around 24 billion euros annually, which could be collected if ship emissions were to be priced coherently," summarises EU parliamentarian Tiemo Wölken (SPD). Half of the revenue generated by the new regulation would go to the EU, the other half would go to various marine funds. 

 

The Parliament also gave the all-clear directly that the new regime would affect import/export trade. "There is no reason to fear an increase in the price of transported products", SPD politician Wölken continued.

It can be strongly assumed that the industry will pass the prices on to the customers.