ICS Tells IMF Time Not Ripe for Industry Fuel Charges

International Chamber of Shipping chairma responds in a letter to International Monetary Fund's fuel-tax proposal

International Chamber of Shipping chairman, Masamichi Mooroka, has written to Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), following her reported comments that fuel charges on shipping and aviation could raise one quarter of the total money to be directed by developed nations to the UNFCCC Green Climate Fund. In the letter ICS challenges several simplistic assumptions apparently made by Ms Lagarde.

The ICS chairman notes that Ms Lagarde has been quoted as saying that "charges on international aviation and maritime emissions would raise about a quarter of the $100 billion needed for climate adaptation and mitigation in developing countries-resources that developed countries have committed to mobilize by 2020".



He continues: “Market Based Measures are very controversial and most shipowners believe, given the severely depressed state of global shipping markets, that now is certainly not the time to impose an additional major cost on international shipping.” 



Nevertheless, Mr Mooroka explains, the position of ICS and its member national shipowners’ associations is that if all governments so decide then shipowners, in principle, will have no objection to contributing, at some point in the future, to the Green Climate Fund, or a similar mechanism that might be established by International Maritime Organization (IMO), provided that such money is indeed used for climate change adaptation or mitigation, and that the same charges apply to all ships internationally regardless of flag. 



However Mr Morooka stresses that shipping’s share of total global emissions (less than 3%) and the forum where the details of such a mechanism should be developed is the IMO.