LONDON (Reuters) - Annual carbon dioxide emissions from world shipping reached 1.12 billion tonnes in 2007, about 3.5 percent of total global carbon emissions, a scientific report by the world's top maritime body shows. The report also showed that growing international seaborne trade and related fuel consumption will raise carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from ships by 30 percent to 1.475 billion tonnes by 2020.
LONDON (Reuters) - Annual carbon dioxide emissions from world shipping reached 1.12 billion tonnes in 2007, about 3.5 percent of total global carbon emissions, a scientific report by the world's top maritime body shows.
The report also showed that growing international seaborne trade and related fuel consumption will raise carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from ships by 30 percent to 1.475 billion tonnes by 2020.
Shipping and aviation emissions are rising rapidly but are not accounted for in the international Kyoto Protocol on global warming, because of the complexity of attributing these emissions to individual states.
The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year said aviation CO2 emissions in 2002 were 492 million tonnes, far less than the IMO estimate of ship emissions even though the airline industry has come under far more scrutiny.
!ADVERTISEMENT!The new study by a group of experts was finalized by the U.N. International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in late December but only distributed to countries party to IMO regulations who met to set new pollution regulations last week.
The estimate and future projections are much higher than what the trillion-dollar industry, which carries more than 90 percent of the world's traded goods by volume, has estimated.
(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; additional reporting Gerard Wynn)
