---

The Council of the European Union has stated that it is in favour of the implementation of worldwide market-based instruments to reduce emissions from the maritime and aviation sectors.

In a document entitled "Council Conclusions on EU position for the Copenhagen Climate Conference (7-18 December 2009)", referred to in an earlier article published by Bunker Index today, the EU Council says "The EU supports the use of global market-based instruments to reduce emissions from these sectors and that such instruments should be developed within ICAO and IMO, respectively."

The conclusions made by the EU Council in the document will be presented at the Copenhagen climate change meeting in December as a basis for negotiating a global agreement.

The EU document follows a recent study commissioned by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from ships, which concluded that a global maritime emissions trading scheme would be the most effective in addressing the GHG issue.

Last month Bunker Index reported that shipping industry associations from five countries had launched a discussion paper which argues that a global trading scheme would be the most effective method of reducing carbon emissions in the shipping sector.

National ship industry associations of Australia, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and the UK jointly launched the paper on 23rd September.

Under a cap and trade scheme individual companies or countries would face a carbon limit. If they exceed their limit, they would be able to purchase allowances from other polluters that remain below their cap.

A cap and trade scheme may be seen as more politically acceptable than a carbon tax and could potentially be set up as an extension of the existing European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) to also cover the international shipping sector.

Under the EU ETS, large emitters of carbon dioxide within the EU must monitor and annually report their CO2 emissions, and they are obliged every year to return an amount of emission allowances to the government that is equivalent to their CO2 emissions in that year.

A recent report by the European Commission calculated that both the shipping and aviation sectors combined could generate revenues as high as 25 billion euros ($36.7 billion) a year in 2020, if their emissions were capped at 30 percent below 2005 levels.