According to Lars Jensen, founder and CEO of Vespucci Maritime, carrier network adjustments to reduce the cost impact of ETS will leave shippers hit with carbon surcharges and fewer direct services from the second half of 2023.
Jensen told attendees at the TPM23 conference in Long Beach last week that while ETS will be rolled out gradually through 2026, the current rule “strongly incentivizes” carriers to modify their networks to add port calls, the costs of which would be passed on.
Jensen noted Maersk had been the only carrier to offer an estimate on carbon surcharges, making it challenging to “put a number to it”. He said, “That already tells us one thing very clearly – all the carriers in the second half of this year will announce carbon surcharges on all trades in and out of Europe, or they will bear the risk themselves. Anyone negotiating contracts into European Union countries needs to take this into account.”
Jensen noted that the UK was no longer part of the EU and therefore, not covered by the ETS legislation. The European ETS forms part of the “Fit for 55” proposals that aim to deliver on Europe’s Green Deal climate law that targets the reduction of net GHG emissions on the continent by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels and to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. Shipping contributes 13% of Europe’s overall transport GHG emissions.
Source: Journal Of Commerce
