India and 62 countries are in favor of the world’s first global carbon tax imposed on the United Nations shipping agency | Photo credit: Istockphoto
India and another 62 countries voted on Friday in favor of the world’s global carbon tax imposed on the United Nations shipping agency.
The decision, tasks at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London after a week of intense negotiations, aims to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of ships and promote cleaner technologies.
The measure marks the first time a world carbon tax is imposed on an entire industry. From 2028, the ships will have to change to fuels of low emission or pay a rate for the pollution they generate.
The tax could generate up to $ 40 billion by 2030. However, all funds will be used exclusively to reduce emissions in the shipping industry and not to support climatic action in the developing country.
Despite this progress in global climatic policy, carbon price is expected to reduce shipping emissions in just 10 percent by 2030, well below the OMI’s own goal or at least percent.
The agreement was supported by 63 countries, including India, China and Brazil, but opposite by oil -rich nations such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Russia and Venezuela.
The United States delegation did not participate in the negotiations and was in the absence of voting.
A group of more than 60 countries, in large part of the Pacific, the Caribbean, Africa and Central America, had pressed so that a part of the income was directed to broader climate finance needs.
These countries, many of them highly vulnerable to climate change, expressed their disappointment for the final result.
Tuvalu, speaking in the name of the island nations of the Pacific, criticized the lack of transparency in the negotiations and said that the current design does not promote a real change towards cleaner fuels.
Vanuatu Climate Change Minister Ralph Rainvanu said that countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United States and other fossil fuel producers had “blocked the progress at every step” and weakened the proposals that could have aligned the shipping sector of the sector of the sector of the sector of the sector of the sector of the ship. Sector the Shipping Sector.
Under the mechanism, the ships will be loaded with the intensity of their emissions.
For example, ships that use conventional fuel in 2028 would pay $ 380 per ton for the most polluting part of their emissions and $ 100 per ton for other emissions that exceed defined thresholds.
This price system will be applied in internships and is designed to gradually penalize the use of fossil fuels, including liquefied natural gas.
Althegh, the basic framework has been seasoning, key technical details, including the way in which income will be used and distributed, are not yet definitive. Politics is expected to be formally adopted in October 2025.
Environmental groups and negotiators from smaller countries have said they continue to press for a more ambitious and equitable result that includes support for the most affected by the climatic crisis.
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and one of the key architects of the Paris Agreement, said that IMO’s decision to introduce a global carbon prices system for shipping is a positive step because it recognizes that pollutants.
However, she described the insufficient agreement, especially, since it does not include an appropriate shipping tax.
“This was a lost opportunity,” he said, adding that it is a strong public support worldwide to tax polluting and super rich industries.
Posted on April 12, 2025
