Latest reports show that Brazil has asked the UN to throw out plans for a new levy on global shipping that would raise funds to fight the climate crisis, despite playing host to the next UN climate summit.
The proposed levy on carbon dioxide emissions from shipping will be discussed at a crunch meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that begins on Monday. Those supporting the deal, including the UK, the EU and Japan, are hoping the levy will raise billions of dollars a year, which could be used to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate breakdown.
Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia and 12 other countries made a submission to the IMO on 31 January opposing the plans. They argued a levy could reduce exports from the developing world, raise food prices and increase inequalities.
They wrote: “A levy would not deliver a just and equitable transition [to low-CO2 shipping] and its adoption may trigger negative, economy-wide impacts … a levy is a fundamentally divisive proposal.”
The countries also claim a levy is not needed to meet the IMO’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.
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Experts said that the levy could still pass despite this opposition, if the IMO took a firm stance. At least 46 countries, representing about two thirds of the global shipping fleet, are thought to favour a deal. Some countries may also be won round through concessions on how the levy could be used, and the level at which it is set.
The countries that are keenest on a levy are those most at risk from climate breakdown, many of them among the planet’s poorest. It will be hard for countries such as Brazil and China to present themselves as champions of the developing world if they are pitted against what the most vulnerable nations are calling for.
The impact of the levy is likely to be small in overall terms, reducing GDP by between 0.03% and 0.07%, according to estimates quoted in the submission.
Brazil will host the Cop30 UN climate summit this November in Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon. The country has been engaged in intense diplomacy for the past year, and stepped up further last month with the appointment of the Cop president-designate, the veteran diplomat André Corrêa do Lago.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
