Shipping: Carbon Emissions

(asked on 17th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2020 to Question 114164 on Shipping: Carbon Emissions and with reference to page 31, paragraph 92 of the Clean Maritime Plan, if he will list the negative externalities associated with zero emission shipping technologies which deter (a) public and (b) private investment in low or zero emission fuels for the shipping industry.


Answered by
Robert Courts Portrait
Robert Courts
Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This question was answered on 23rd November 2020

DfT-commissioned research, published in 2019 to support the publication of the Clean Maritime Plan, explored market failures and other barriers to the take-up of emission abatement options. This research highlighted that negative externalities associated with emissions of GHGs and air pollutants from the consumption of fuels constitute a market failure that influences the perceived cost effectiveness of any possible abatement option.

As set out in the Clean Maritime Plan, the negative externalities associated with zero emission shipping technologies mean that the return on investment for many technologies is not currently sufficient to attract finance at competitive rates. Further information on the nature and implications of this and other market failures and barriers to the transition to clean maritime is publicly available on GOV.UK[1]

[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/815671/identification-market-failures-other-barriers-of-commercial-deployment-of-emission-reduction-options.pdf

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