Many of the world’s largest shipping nations decided on Friday to impose a minimum fee of $100 for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above certain thresholds, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions. The International Maritime Organization estimates $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue annually from the fees, with the money to be put into its net zero fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships. The thresholds set through the agreement will get stricter over time to try to reach the IMO’s goal of net zero across the industry by about 2050.
  • absquatulate@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    I’d be tempted to say this is good news, but I bet it’ll end up being just another tax on poor nations.

    Edit: amusing how these days “all major nations” does not include US anymore

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      Yeah, it will.

      But at the same time, carbon is way too cheap.

      It sucks…but by not paying for the externalities of consuming carbon, we’ve been making the planet less habitable for all, but especially poor people. Heavy carbon emitters are always upwind and upstream of poor communities. We ship out our worst waste to third world countries.

      Something’s gonna have to give. There’s no easy solution. But I’d definitely take carbon taxes over tariffs. Targeting nation-states arbitrarily isn’t going to fix anything, but targeting the shipping industry will.

      There’s no good answer.