The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has called for the United Kingdom to include shipping emissions in their carbon target calculations. The UK had dismissed the shipping emissions effects from their final numbers. The UK government will no longer disregard the shipping sector's environmental impact from its 2050 carbon targets. Global shipping is estimated to account for more than three percent of all annual global emissions with the UK contributing about 18 million tones of CO2 by 2050; 11 percent of UK's total carbon budget. The British government may not have included the shipping costs into the budget due to costs. If the costs were included into the plan, then other sectors of the economy would have had to cover the overall financial burden, reports say. The UK estimates that shipping emissions are around 10 million tons of CO2, but outside speculations worry if this number is accurate and properly disclosed. One reason behind lack of faith in the UK's reported numbers is that ships transporting goods often stop to refuel at cheap European ports, which are a way to avoid additional numbers in the United Kingdom's carbon total. The CCC has two recommendations for the United Kingdom government: include shipping emissions in the 2050 target and carbon budgets immediately, after an methodology has been determined. Also, make them part of the 2050 target now, but only include them in the rolling five-year carbon budgets after a method to measure emissions has been completed. David Kennedy, CCC CEO states “(The report) confirms shipping emissions are material and if we're not talking about shipping emissions we are missing a potential non-trivial source.” BM
