Shipping: Carbon Emissions

(asked on 13th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he last met representatives of the shipping industry to discuss the operation of Emissions Trading Schemes in the maritime sector.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 20th December 2023

The expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to domestic maritime is currently planned from 2026. Officials across the UK ETS Authority have been regularly engaging across the maritime sector ahead of the next consultation on expansion of the UK ETS to domestic maritime. My officials met with industry bodies as recently as three weeks ago, and will continue to do so both ahead of, and following, the publication of the next consultation on the expansion of the UK ETS.

The EU ETS meanwhile will apply to all cargo and passenger vessels over 5000GT operating within the European Economic Area (EEA) and internationally to the EEA from 1 Jan 2024.

We have no plans to make a full assessment of this EU ETS scheme, it will impact all nations going to the EEA equally. The amount of in-scope emissions that allowances must be surrendered will increase from 40% in 2024, increasing to 70% in 2025, and 100% in 2026. The EU ETS will initially cover carbon dioxide emissions and be widened to include methane and nitrous oxide from 2026.

We will continue to monitor developments of international and regional carbon pricing instruments covering shipping schemes, including the EU ETS proposal, and consider how these might interact with our domestic policy in the future. This will be applied equally to all operators travelling internationally to the EEA. The EU ETS is not expected to have any organizational impact on the MCA.

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