The UK did not accept the latest recommendation from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to fully include shipping emissions under the UK Climate Change Act. The government said that emissions from international journeys should be addressed based on UN agreements.
The CCC has requested the UK to take responsibility for emissions from international shipping and aviation. As it explained, if the UK does not do this, it could need to achieve net zero emissions before 2050, in order to make a fair contribution to global decarbonisation efforts.
However, the UK said that as shipping and aviation are global issues, they should be dealt with global solutions. For this reason, it considers IMO to be the primary route for decarbonising shipping.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
Moreover, the UK plans to allow headroom in its carbon budgets to allow for the UK’s share of aviation and shipping emissions, and may also consider including shipping into climate targets more formally in the future. However, it the government believes that currently there is no need to change the current policy.
But it insisted there was no need to change the existing policy at this time. As such, the new “pathway” to achieve the UK’s net zero target, which Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom promised would be delivered next year, is likely to focus on domestic emissions alone.
This means that UK will focus on reducing domestics emissions to achieve decarbonization, increasing its efforts across the rest of the economy.
In this aspect, it plans to proceed with the 2040 phase out date for the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles. In addition, it considers rules to allow subsidy free onshore wind and solar projects to be developed.
