Pacific islands propose hefty levy on ships’ GHG emissions

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As we reported yesterday, the shipping community is calling for a $5 billion IMO shipping decarbonization R&D effort to be funded by a $2 per ton tax on marine fuels.

Two pacific island nations are calling for a tax on the emissions that those fuels generate.

The governments of the Marshall Islands and the Solomon Islands have submitted a proposal to IMO’s Marine Environmental Protection Committee calling for a $100 a tonne tax on ships’ CO2 emissions.

“The proposal would establish a mandatory universal GHG levy with an entry price of $100 per tonne/CO2e with regular upward ratchets following review,” Albon Ishoda, the ambassador of the Marshall Islands to Fiji, said in a release yesterday, adding that “the majority of the funds raised from the levy would help climate vulnerable like ours meet different climate mitigation and adaption needs.”