Maersk is calling on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to have a carbon dioxide tax for the maritime industry ready by 2025; starting at about $50 a tonne and gradually increasing it to $150 a tonne in later years, Bloomberg reports.
The company said the tax will bridge the price gap between traditional bunker fuels that vessels currently consume and greener alternatives that are much more expensive.
Fuel costs would effectively almost double if the measure were imposed today because of how carbon dioxide emissions are counted.
According to Maersk, the $150 tax will equate to a $450 per metric tonne (pmt) hike in the cost of Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO).
VLSFO costs about $500 to $525 pmt depending on where in the world it’s bought, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“It’s not trivial to move to green fuels from a cost perspective,” said Soren Skou, CEO of A.P. Moller Maersk. “We need to somehow level the playing field, and that’s the purpose of a market-based measure.”
The issue is set to be discussed at a UN meeting beginning next week.
Photo credit: Maersk
Published: 4 June, 2021
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