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The head of the world’s second-largest container shipping company warned that the EU’s plan to cut carbon emissions may increase the carbon dioxide produced by the shipping industry.
Sorrentoft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping, told the Financial Times that the EU’s measures are still under consideration. Unless low-carbon fuels are easily available, the EU’s measures will have the opposite effect.
This is because operators will be forced to slow down their ships to meet reduced demand, which will require more new ships to maintain service levels.
“For us, it is clear that their proposal without carbon neutral fuel will add more capacity, more containers, all of which require financing, and building in Asia will generate more emissions,” He says.
However, Tristan Smith of the Institute of Energy Studies at University College London said that the claim that EU carbon measures would increase emissions from the industry was “uncredible”.
He added that the emissions produced by ships burning marine fuel are much higher than those produced during the construction process, and other economic factors such as oil prices and freight rates determine ship speed.
MSC’s comments come as the European Union prepares to revise its carbon market proposal next month. MSC’s comments are at a critical juncture. The company will surpass Maersk in terms of capacity and become the world’s largest container group with the largest new ship. Order.
Toft, which joined MSC from Maersk in December, is also important because since the group was founded by Gianluigi Aponte in 1970, the group has rarely promoted.
A big issue facing the shipping industry is the range of voyages that the EU will target in its revised emissions trading system, as policymakers are trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55% by 2030.
Shipping generates 2.4% of global carbon dioxide emissions and it is difficult to decarbonize because low-carbon fuels such as green ammonia or hydrogen are not widely available.
Dierderik Samsom, the head of the team responsible for the EU’s green agreement and an official of the European Commission, said that the emissions trading system will be the main mechanism used to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the shipping industry.
Carbon pricing allows emitters to purchase permits to achieve CO2 emissions targets, which will provide “real incentives” [maritime] Samsom said at the European Futures Conference of the Financial Times last week.
He added that the industry can respond to the new obligations by reducing its carbon footprint by using different types of ships and different sailing speeds.
Toft has joined the MSC, and the industry is facing increasing scrutiny in two areas: its response to climate change and its efforts to restore service reliability that collapsed during the pandemic.
MSC’s ships lost 10,000 sailing days this year due to waiting in crowded ports, an increase of about one-third from last year.
“We are working hard to provide services that we believe our customers are entitled to,” Toft said.
But he insisted that the current global supply chain disruption, which he believes may last until next year, “is not caused by the operator.”
Another concern for the industry is the possibility of a regional tax on emissions. “The EU will take this approach, and then before we know it, we will have 10 different ways to deal with it,” Toft said.
But some smaller operators such as Torvald Klaveness and Maersk Tankers stated that the industry should accept that the EU will legislate on shipping emissions and work to influence the regional initiative instead of preventing it.
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