EU ministers vote in emissions law for shipping

Malta’s extensive shipping sector will have to monitor its carbon emissions for the very first time, under a law agreed by the European Union on Wednesday despite Malta’s objections.

The rules are intended as a step towards tackling a growing source of pollutants linked to climate change.

International shipping accounts for around 3% of the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide, a share which could increase to 18% by 2050 if regulation is not in place, according to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

The law stops short of including shipping in the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).

It introduces a mechanism for monitoring, reporting and checking shipping emissions as a follow-up to an October EU agreement on new targets to tackle climate change and a precursor to U.N. efforts to seal a global pact in 2015.

Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Poland voted against the law, but that had not been enough to block it.

Years of debate in the IMO and at the United Nations have failed to come up with a way of including shipping emissions in mandatory pollution curbs.

Environmental campaigners say the new EU law is weak because it only measures emissions, although they still welcomed it as progress towards tougher steps.

The law has a long lead time as ship-owners will only have to monitor emissions from 2018, and only from ships of more than 5,000 gross tonnes.