EU Parliament voted to include shipping in carbon trading scheme

The European Union Parliament has voted in favour of extending its carbon market (ETS) to shipping and road transport.

The Parliament agreed to include all ships above 400 gross tonnage and offshore vessels in the EU’s carbon market. Polluters will have to pay for CO2, methane and nitrous oxide emissions when sailing within the EU and 50% of voyages outside of the bloc until 2027.

After 2027, the scope of the carbon market will be automatically extended to 100% of ships entering and leaving European ports. Lawmakers did, however, exclude ice-going ships and ships traveling to the outermost regions.

Europe’s clean transport campaigner, Transport & Environment (T&E) has hailed the move and called on national governments to adopt an equally ambitious position in the European Council later this month.

The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) also welcomed the Parliament’s commitment to enforcing the ‘polluter-pays’ principle, by ensuring the mandatory pass-through of the ETS costs to the commercial operators of the vessels through contractual clauses.

It also supported the proposal to create a dedicated fund and to earmark 75% of the revenues generated by the shipping allowances to the sector’s energy transition.