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The UK Chamber of Shipping has said that it welcomes the publication of a review from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and agrees that shipping should not be excluded from carbon targets in the future.

In reference to the report's commments that there would be significant difficulties in attempting to apportion emissions accurately to a single country in what is such a uniquely international trade, the Chamber of Shipping stressed that reducing emissions from shipping would require global cooperation.

"The Chamber has worked closely in recent months with the Committee on Climate Change to gain greater clarity on the level of emissions from the UK fleet and supports the recommendation that the UK Government should work closely with the EU to further refine this work," the UK body said.

The Chamber welcomed the advances made by the International Maritime Organization to promote the reduction of shipping’s carbon emissions through technical and operational measures, but said that it believed that it would prove necessary for the industry to 'go further' through the adoption of economic (or ‘market-based’) measures to meet governments’ expectations and targets. To that end the Chamber has also recently published papers outlining how two such measures could be implemented for global shipping.

The Chamber stressed that the introduction of any such measures would need to be carried out globally via the International Maritime Organization rather than through any regional solution. The UK body warned that any such regional measures would only serve to 'distort trade' and 'potentially damage shipping'.

David Balston, Director Safety & Environment at the UK Chamber of Shipping said: "I am very pleased that the Committee on Climate Change has involved the Chamber in producing such a well balanced and thought provoking review of shipping emissions.

"This work is hugely important and complements ground breaking work that the UK Chamber has been doing in leading and shaping the debate on how shipping can drive down carbon emissions.

"We do stress, however, that any solution must be global rather than regional to avoid distorting world trade and potentially damaging an industry that is vital to the future prosperity of the United Kingdom."