Maersk adds support to carbon fee on bunkers

As the debate over carbon taxes escalates amid fears of increased costs for land and sea freight operators, Maersk Line has given its backing to the idea of a tax as part of international efforts to make the world a better place. Spokesperson in Copenhagen for Maersk Line, Louise Kjaergaard, said the company actively supported the call for CO2 regulation for shipping and a global agreement on climate change. Kjaergaard said Maersk Line would continue to urge the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to remove the barriers for an agreement applicable to all shipping companies. For example, Kjaergaard said there was support in the form of a carbon fee on purchases of bunker fuel. “Such a deal will almost surely increase the cost of operating a shipping line, but as long as the agreement is designed to ensure a level playing field for all, we would welcome it,” Kjaergaard said. A carbon tax is certainly on the cards. In February National Treasury said that environmentally related taxes had an important role to play in discouraging activities that imposed high social costs and would ensure that economic growth and development were sustainable. On Friday at its annual meeting in Hamburg the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Shipping Federation (ISF) said that if market-based measures to reduce CO2 emissions were developed by governments then the international industry had a definite preference for a mechanism that was levy/compensation fund-based rather than an emissions trading scheme.