More than 20 countries and regional organisations have backed proposals for a levy on shipping industry emissions ahead of an International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting next month, the French presidency said at the end of a Paris summit.

Shipping, which emits 2.9% of total greenhouse gases, has largely escaped taxation because the high seas are not in the jurisdiction of any one government.

If the IMO, the United Nations body which regulates shipping, taxed carbon emissions, it would encourage shippers to go green faster. The body could then channel the money raised, perhaps $100 billion a year, to poorer countries to help them cope with climate change.

A chair’s summary of discussions at the Summit on a New Global Financing Pact, said 23 countries and regional organisations had committed to adopt an ambitious revised IMO GHG (greenhouse emissions gas) strategy at its committee meeting between July 3-7 July 2023.

“To place the international maritime transportation sector on a pathway consistent with the goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees,” the summary said.

The countries supported the adoption of the principle of a levy on shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions, the summary said.

“Underlining that revenue from the levy should notably contribute to a ‘just and equitable transition’ of the shipping sector,” the summary said.

The presidency named Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Spain, Slovenia, Monaco, Georgia, Vanuatu, South Korea, Greece, Vietnam, Lithuania, Barbados, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Ireland, Mauritius, Kenya, Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand and the European Commission.

The shipping industry’s tax-free status already faces challenges. From next year all ships will have to buy permits for their emissions within the EU, and half of what they spew out while travelling between the bloc and other countries.

Although it is unlikely to agree to a levy, it could set a timetable to introduce one.

Source: Reuters reported by John Irish and edited by Alexander Smith