Shipping braces for pollution tax after Paris talks

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There seems little doubt about it – shipping appears increasingly likely to have to face some sort of global tax on emissions. The real question is whether it will be discussed in the forthcoming Paris COP21 UN conference on climate change, at the end of the month. Since Kyoto, developing legislation to cover shipping emissions has been the sole preserve of the IMO, but the UN’s shipping body has been stung by a series of recent attacks from member states such as The Marshall Islands, arguing that rising sea levels represent “an existential threat”. While shipping is not expected to be formally discussed in Paris, shipowners expect the momentum from the talks to hit their industry.