Looking at ways to cut its growing carbon footprint from shipping activities
Glencore, the world’s biggest trader of physical commodities, said it is looking at ways it can cut its growing carbon footprint from its shipping activities ahead of any emissions trading scheme for the maritime sector.
The Switzerland-headquartered company, which earlier this year floated on the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of 37 billion pounds, said in its first sustainability report it was looking at ways of cutting emissions in key areas of its business.
“We are also examining the extent to which our shipping activities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, in light of a mooted emissions trading scheme for the maritime industry,” the company said.
The company said it wouldn’t go into details on how it would engage with any future carbon trading schemes that would apply to shipping.
Meanwhile, a company spokesman said Glencore would not be getting involved in carbon trading in other areas, such as the markets in EU allowances and offset credits generated through the Kyoto protocol.
“We are a physical commodity trader so those markets aren’t of interest to us,” he said.
Glencore said its operations were responsible for 7.6 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent in 2010, up from 6.5 million in 2009 and 7.3 million in 2008.
Last year emissions from shipping accounted for 4.3 million tonnes, 57 per cent of the total, up from the sector’s contribution of 3.7 million in 2009.
In 2010, emissions from Glencore’s extensive interests in mining and minerals amounted to 2.16 million tonnes, down from 2.43 million in 2009 and 2.86 million in 2008.
“Emissions from shipping were up last year mainly because of an increase in trading of commodities following the economic downturn in 2009,” said a Glencore spokesman.
Transporting oil by sea accounted for 47 per cent of the company’s emissions last year, while moving grain by ship took a 10 per cent share, the company’s sustainability report said.
GHG emissions from international shipping to amount to 870 million tonnes a year, according to figures compiled by the IMO in 2009.
The EU has warned the UN’s International Maritime Organisation that if it fails to act on reining in its shipping emissions, the sector will be included in the bloc’s cap-and-trade scheme during the trading period 2013-2020.
In a bid to stave off action by the EU, the IMO said in July it is considering market-based measures, such as emissions trading or a global levy, to help cut emissions from the sector.
But the IMO has struggled to find agreement amid a wider dispute between developed and developing nations at UN climate talks on future emissions cuts.
Source: Reuters
