On Friday, October 17, during a meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London, diplomatic pressure from the United States and US President Donald Trump thwarted the European Union's historic initiative to introduce a tax on greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry.
This is reported in an article published by Politico.
This means that efforts to establish mandatory international rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships will be frozen for a year. According to experts, over the course of the year, the US and other countries may try to garner more support to completely stop the introduction of a carbon tax on ships.
The blocking of the tax on maritime freight transport comes amid an increasingly hostile US approach to EU climate measures, with Donald Trump calling climate change a “hoax” and urging other countries to stop investing in renewable energy.
The freeze on the tax has been supported by major global fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, which have traditionally opposed climate measures aimed at reducing the use of oil, gas, and coal. Major shipping countries, including Singapore and Liberia, also oppose the EU initiative.
China, the world's largest shipbuilder, also shifted from supporting the ship emissions tax in April to voting to delay it on October 17.
A European Commission spokeswoman called the delay in introducing the shipping tax “regrettable” and stressed the EU's commitment to introducing an “ambitious, science-based global mechanism” to put international shipping on a path to zero emissions by 2050.
It should be recalled that Donald Trump's administration quietly canceled the largest solar project in the US (Esmeralda-7).
Esmeralda-7 is a complex of seven solar energy projects in rural Nevada that was expected to generate up to 6.2 GW of energy. Its projected capacity would have been enough to power 2 million homes.
