The effect of including international shipping carrying domestic cargo in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) will have detrimental environmental affects in the short term, peak body Shipping Australia (SAL) said today.
Responding to the Federal Government’s White Paper, Shipping Australia chief executive Llew Russell said that increasing the cost of domestic shipping would simply drive cargo on to the more environmentally damaging land transport modes especially road transport.
The Government had rejected its own Green Paper proposal that the scheme only apply to domestic emissions as defined under the international accounting standard.
Under this standard, fuels consumed on the domestic section of international voyages were not counted towards national emissions.
“The important point is that decisions have already been taken within the International Maritime Organisation on reductions in sulphur oxide and nitrous oxide emissions and there is active debate on CO2 reductions,” Mr Russell said.
“Indeed, many members of Shipping Australia have been pro-active in adopting environmentally friendly practices and vessel design that exceed the minimum international standards.
“We had agreed in our submission to government that those stakeholders which were concerned that competitive distortions will arise if the scheme covers domestic maritime fuels, but excluded fuels used by international ships had a point.
“The answer was to provide transitional assistance or exclusion pending the development of an international scheme for shipping that is well underway.
“While Shipping Australia remains supportive of the Government’s general approach as outlined in the White Paper, it is disappointing that there had been a miscalculation in this area.”