Leading shipowner Andreas Sohmen-Pao of BW Group believes shipping needs to take the lead in CO2 emission reductions and be model for other industries, and continues to push for a carbon tax.

“I think carbon pressure is coming and it’s coming fast and we need to get ahead of it because if we are sitting here in five years without having done anything on mitigation then we are going to be in this usual disarray of trying to deal with all these proposals cap and trade, this that and the other, rather than us taking the lead and saying here is a framework,” Sohmen-Pao told the closing of the Danish Maritime Forum in Copenhagen.

“My aspiration is we become a role model for other industries in terms of setting of setting direction and setting frameworks that work for us.”

Sohmen-Pao’s example for how shipping could do this is with a carbon tax of say $10 per tonne on bunker fuel and rising steadily on fixed schedule over a 10 year timeline so shipowners could plan for it. This could provide a fund of $10bn or $20bn after 10 years.

As to what this fund would be used for he said: “Let’s not put it in a black hole somewhere, lets put it back into the industry. I can think of lots of good uses in the environmental sphere for example green scrapping and lo and behold we have solved overcapacity, we’ve solved problems with scrapping in Bangladesh and India and we’ve started to make a move on carbon.”

It is not the first time that Sohmen-Pao has pushed for a carbon tax, however, it is not a popular idea in the industry at large.

While pushing for industry to take the lead over carbon emissions he noted in the same session the growing difficulty of find consensus in the industry. “We seem to be getting worse at consensus building. Globally and within our industry we’re not doing that well on consensus building and that’s such an important element in defining a clear purpose and then getting action towards making these things happen.”

Others did though feel shipping could take the lead in terms of reducing carbon emissions.

Jose Maria Figueres, president of Carbon War Room, noted that shipping’s carbon emissions were equivalent to the sixth largest nation by economic output in the world and this was not an issue that was going to slip under carpet. “I think there is a tremendous opportunity to get ahead of that, out and lead with very clear long term measures that can enlighten regulation.”

IMO secretary-general Koji Sekimizu said he was, “Sure shipping could become a really good model for dealing with carbon emissions.