Many of the world’s largest shipping nations decided on Friday to impose a minimum fee of $100 for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above certain thresholds, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions. The International Maritime Organization estimates $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue annually from the fees, with the money to be put into its net zero fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships. The thresholds set through the agreement will get stricter over time to try to reach the IMO’s goal of net zero across the industry by about 2050.
  • absquatulate@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    3 days ago

    I’d be tempted to say this is good news, but I bet it’ll end up being just another tax on poor nations.

    Edit: amusing how these days “all major nations” does not include US anymore

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, it will.

      But at the same time, carbon is way too cheap.

      It sucks…but by not paying for the externalities of consuming carbon, we’ve been making the planet less habitable for all, but especially poor people. Heavy carbon emitters are always upwind and upstream of poor communities. We ship out our worst waste to third world countries.

      Something’s gonna have to give. There’s no easy solution. But I’d definitely take carbon taxes over tariffs. Targeting nation-states arbitrarily isn’t going to fix anything, but targeting the shipping industry will.

      There’s no good answer.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          I know. It really sucks. Poor communities already take the brunt of it. There’s a reason why poor communities, even (if not especially) in the US have lower life expectancies,more cancer cases, more asthma, higher birth defects, etc.

          The good news is, they would feel the pinch of carbon taxes mostly on imported goods. Which, granted, while it would mean more expensive goods for the consumer, I think it would also mean less frivolous consumption, which ultimately would harm the rampant consumerism and with it a lot of major polluters.