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Written question asked by Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 10 October 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 12 October 2005. It was answered by Elliot Morley (Labour) on Tuesday, 18 October 2005 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Carbon Emissions

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of carbon emissions from (a) domestic and (b) international shipping (i) by volume and (ii) as a percentage of total carbon emissions in the last year for which figures are available; and what strategy is in place to reduce such emissions.
Answer

The table shows carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from UK domestic and UK international shipping in million tonnes of carbon (MtC) for 2003. The table also shows UK domestic shipping emissions as a percentage of the total 2003 UK CO2 emission of 156.1 MtC.

Shipping CO2 emissions (MtC) Percentage of total UK CO2 emissions
Domestic 0.9 0.6
International 1.4 —

Under the internationally agreed methodology, greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping are excluded from the national greenhouse gas inventory. They are reported separately as a memo item and, if included, would represent less than one per cent. of the UK total CO2 emissions.The international figure is derived from marine fuel (or bunker fuel) sales, and sales represents emissions from fuel burned by seagoing ships of all flags that are engaged in international transport.The domestic figure is also derived from bunker sales and represents emissions from fuel used for navigation of all vessels not engaged in international transport.The UK's approach to the regulation of shipping is to apply international standards to ships flying its flag and to ships entering its ports or operating in UK waters. Work on reducing maritime emissions goes through the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). At the last Maritime Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting in July 2005, the United Kingdom contributed significantly to difficult negotiations on the adoption of Interim Guidelines for Voluntary Ship CO2 Emission Indexing for Use in Trials (as well as Guidelines for On-board Exhaust Gas SOx Cleaning Systems).Ships under the United Kingdom flag are being encouraged to participate in these trials, which will help identify a ship's greenhouse gas index where the information obtained may be used in the context of reducing CO2emissions.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
17199; 437 c854-5W;437 c831-2W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Carbon Shipping