The Panama Canal Authority is set to become one of the first
governmental entities in the world to charge shipowners a fee for their
vessels' greenhouse gas emissions.
Speaking at the AAPA Latino conference in Cartagena,
Colombia, on November 30, Panama Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez Morales
announced that the authority is going to implement a new "Green Vessel
Classification" system, which will include a new "Greenhouse Gas
Emissions Fee."
The Canal has long offered a "carrot" incentive
for green shipping in the form of a points system, allowing cleaner vessels to
progress up the canal's customer rankings more quickly. However, the
newly-announced fee appears to go one step further: a GHG charge would create a
small financial penalty for the operators of higher-emitting vessels.
"The urgency to take climate action is here, and the
industry must take an accelerated approach to mitigate the already adverse
effects of climate change. By implementing this fee, the Canal acknowledges the
environmental impacts of shipping, as well as those in the industry who are
paving the way to minimizing emissions," the authority said in an
announcement. "The fee will support investments to guarantee environmental
performance standards and aid in making Canal operations carbon neutral."
Under the new scheme, the Canal will classify all ships over
125 feet in length using an energy efficiency ranking. It will incorporate
three factors: the ship's EEDI score; operational efficiency measures during
transit, such as the use of bow thrusters; and the use of zero-carbon or
carbon-neutral fuels. According to the authority, these factors could reduce
emissions during a canal transit by 20-100 percent.
The fee amounts have not yet been announced, and the
authority says that it is in talks with shipowners about how the new system
would work in practice.
The Canal is making its own effort to cut carbon. It plans
to buy 10 hybrid-powered tugs for a 20-percent emissions savings on towing
operations; invest in a fleet of electric vehicles; and consolidate its
facilities, which would produce a 33-percent savings.
The Panama Canal is itself uniquely vulnerable to climate
change. Its operations are dependent on the water level in Gatun Lake, which
also supplies the drinking water needs of the local population. The country has
been hit by repeated droughts in recent years, and temperature rise has raised
the rate of evaporation from the lake by about 10 percent. The U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers has agreed to consult on new water-management infrastructure, and
the Canal plans to spend up to $2 billion on this and other climate-adaptation
projects.
In 2019, extreme drought conditions forced tough choices
about draft restrictions on canal transits. The cycles of low rainfall are
associated with El Niño events, which climate scientists expect to see more
frequently in the future. "The impact of climate change is quite evident
on the Panama Canal," Vasquez said in 2020.
The government of Panama was one of the IMO member states
supporting the International Chamber of Shipping's proposal for a $2 per tonne
global bunker fee at IMO MEPC 77, which wrapped up last week. Though this
measure was unsuccessful at MEPC, the canal will still be able to implement its
own unique carbon fee for a large fraction of global shipping while it waits
for IMO to discuss decarbonization.