The bunker levy scheme has been vaunted as a way of capturing billions of dollars from the maritime industry, which can then be redistributed via the International Maritime Organization (IMO) into an environmental compensation scheme to help ship owners meet their climate change responsibilities and reduce carbon emissions. Christopher Snelling, Secretary of BSC, said: “A bunker levy in the proposed format would simply pass costs from ship operator to customer. The accountability for a ship’s carbon performance surely lies with its owner; passing the buck by way of a bunker levy would be grossly unfair and do very little to tackle the real issue of curbing carbon emissions at the root of the problem.
“The key to reducing carbon is in the hands of the ship owners themselves, where the responsibility to improve operational and environmental efficiency must remain.”
Earlier this year the Global Shippers’ Forum stated it would welcome and support a voluntary shipping industry initiative to reduce carbon emissions through the IMO. Indeed, GSF members are closely collaborating on a new project to decarbonize the maritime supply chain from the shippers’ perspective. The outputs from the project will provide a series of tools to allow shippers to take positive steps to reduce their total maritime supply chain carbon emissions.
