Seven out of eight political groups of the European Parliament’s environment committee wrote a joint letter to stress the need to ensure that addressing shipping emissions is included in the upcoming council conclusions.
They said the text to be finalised in Paris next week must include a requirement for the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The heads of the groups wrote: “To promote increased climate ambition from ICAO and IMO, like all the other sectors of the global economy, aviation and international shipping require an emissions reduction target.
“There is no reasonable excuse to continue exempting these two economy sectors from the global policy framework.
“Aviation and shipping need to contribute in the same way that is required of all UNFCCC Parties, large and small.”
They said emissions from shipping are expected to grow between 50% and 250% by 2050.
The Environment Ministers of the 28 European member states will be meeting on 18 September to finalise the EU position for COP21.
Sotiris Raptis, clean shipping officer at sustainable transport group Transport & Environment, said: “It's simply fair to demand from two economic sectors with emissions the size of Germany and South Korea to reduce CO2 emissions in line with keeping the global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius.”
