Fund to help ports adapt to climate change
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has participated at a United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting to explore how ports should prepare for the threat of climate change.
Speaking at the meeting in Geneva, ICS Director of External Relations, Simon Bennett advised governments that money for the adaptation of ports to deal with rising sea levels and more extreme weather could be provided by a proposed new International Maritime Organization (IMO) environmental compensation fund.
The fund could be financed by contributions from the shipping industry relating to market based measures for CO2 reduction.
“The advantage of a compensation fund linked to shipsʹ fuel consumption is that some of the monies raised could be readily directed by IMO to environmental projects in developing countries, such as the adaptation of ports to climate change”, Mr Bennett continued.
He suggested that developing nations should play close attention to discussions at IMO, and to the parallel discussions at UNFCCC with respect to possible contributions by the shipping industry to a UN ‘Green Fund’, “to ensure that developed nations did not end up keeping the lions’ share of any money raised from shipping for themselves”.
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