Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) (Extension to Maritime Activities) Order 2026

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I offer the Green Party’s support for this statutory instrument and oppose the regret and fatal amendments. I will add some extra points to this debate that have not yet been made. We must look at this in the context of global shipping, which, back in 2018, represented around 2.9% of global emissions caused by human activities and is projected to rise by up to 130% by 2050, which, essentially, would blow our climate restrictions out of the water, to use an appropriate metaphor.

In July 2023, the International Maritime Organization committed to new targets for greenhouse gas reductions and was going to adopt a basket of measures globally last year. Since then, as in many areas, we have seen President Trump put a spanner in the works. That makes it even more important for the UK to hold the line and set the standard in being, as we so often hear people saying, a world leader. If we take steps to get the fossil fuels out of these vessels and adopt alternatives then this will be world-leading. These are steps that will address the cost of living. I refer noble Lords to the report out this week from the Climate Change Committee. It noted that delivering net-zero targets will cost less than a single oil shock across the economy. Relying on fossil fuels is an extremely expensive, risky economic choice, as well as all the other issues.

There has been a fair bit about the Isle of Wight, but I want to build on what the noble Earl, Lord Russell, and the noble Lord, Lord Ashcombe, said. I had extensive comments, but they have said quite a bit of what I was going to say. The key point to add is that this is expected to add £1 to £2 extra to a ticket. We have grossly expensive transport options for the people on the Isle of Wight and a grossly unreliable transport system. We need huge improvements and huge changes. I speak as someone who goes to the Isle of Wight quite regularly.

Today, there are no wheelchairs, prams or bikes permitted on the FastCat due to a technical issue. The Fishbourne to Portsmouth car ferry sailings have been cancelled due to a combination of forecast wind conditions and the “St Clare” ferry running on three out of four engines due to a propeller issue. There are big problems with the Isle of Wight’s transport provision, but this is tiny in the scale of the broader problems that desperately need to be addressed.

It is worth noting what can be achieved and what is possible. On 10 March, the “Baltic Whale” took part in its first commercial voyage from Scandlines, which aims to operate without direct emissions by 2040. On the Rødby to Puttgarden route, the freight ferry makes the 10-mile crossing in 45 minutes. It has a charge time at each harbour of 12 minutes. Other countries are making huge advances. Interestingly, the “Baltic Whale” makes far less noise, which is of huge benefit to the natural environment, to the wildlife in the Baltic Sea and to human life.

I go back to the Air Quality Expert Group’s 2017 report, Impacts of Shipping on UK Air Quality, as not much has changed. It noted that shipping makes “significant contributions” to emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide, as well as PM2.5 and PM10—particulate matter. That includes emissions of black carbon and carbon dioxide. All those have major impacts on public health. If we get away from fossil fuels, we will make important steps to improve public health.

Finally, I have a direct question to put to the Minister, where I will stop supporting the Government and ask a challenging question. Everything I have just said—and what this SI does—is contradicted by the UK cruise growth plan, which aims to increase the amount of cruise ships. I draw here on a very useful briefing from Transport & Environment from the end of last year. Cruise ships are already having a huge impact on air quality in ports and can be responsible for up to 96% of toxic sulphur oxide pollution at the busiest terminals. That is particularly an issue at Southampton. It is also a very big issue in Belfast. How can the Minister justify taking steps here that are both public health measures and climate measures while the Government are in other ways promoting more pollution and more health damage?

[Lord Rogan (UUP)]

My Lords, in common with my noble friends and Ulster Unionist Party colleagues at the Stormont Assembly, I cannot support this legislation, which is detrimental to Northern Ireland, given the Province’s huge reliance on sea transport. We note that ferry services for the Scottish islands are exempt from this provision. Perhaps if Ministers were chasing votes in Northern Ireland in May, as they are for elections in Scotland, the exemption might have been extended across the Irish Sea as well. The Irish Sea is nothing less than an economic lifeline for the Province, with around 90% of its trade and passenger movements coming via ferries and shipping routes.

I have raised the issue of the lack of competitiveness in air services between Northern Ireland and Great Britain on numerous occasions in this House. Flying to and from Belfast on domestic routes has become incredibly expensive. Given the ongoing events in the Middle East, prices will likely rise still further. Unlike most other parts of the United Kingdom, the use of sea transportation is therefore not optional for many people and businesses in Northern Ireland.

I fully appreciate the Government’s aspiration to advance decarbonisation through the use of alternative fuels. However, if the world has learned nothing else over the past two weeks it is that there will be a continued reliance on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future in the UK and elsewhere, whether we like it or not. As such, the consequence of this order is the creation of what can only be described as a carbon tax in Northern Ireland, which would not have to be borne in anything like the same degree by the rest of the United Kingdom.

Of course, this comes as the Province continues to struggle with the seemingly ever-growing burden of costs on its people following the imposition of the Irish Sea border. The previous Conservative Government claimed to have removed it by dreaming up the Windsor Framework. It did not work. In opposition, the Labour Party pledged to improve matters if it came to power. It has not. Indeed, we have yet more costs being slapped on the Province through the order to keep Brussels happy, because the EU sets the rules in Northern Ireland now, not our supposedly sovereign UK Government.

If this order was for any purpose other than pleasing Brussels, the Government could and should have chosen to direct its proceeds into the Northern Ireland economy, perhaps with an emphasis on supporting our shipping industry and its transition to alternative means of propulsion, but they have not done so. Instead, we have yet another example of Whitehall taking the simplest option, with all the damaging implications it will have for that part of the United Kingdom, about which it knows little and, I feel, cares even less.