What are the issues that make reaching agreement challenging? Why is implementation difficult if everyone agrees on the need to reduce CO2 emissions?
CO2 regulatory regimes do not yet exist in most countries. It is both technically and politically difficult to create such systems for fixed emission sources (like power plants) in domestic economies. It is even more challenging to address mobile transportation sources, like automobiles, rail, aviation and shipping. The challenge of addressing these mobile sources becomes even more complex when those sources operate under the registries of different nations, call at ports in multiple nations, and generate emissions on the high seas outside any nation’s jurisdiction. The IMO has in fact made substantial progress on developing an energy efficiency design index for new ships to reduce carbon emissions. It is generally accepted, however, that such a design index, if only applied to new ships, is unlikely, by itself, to sufficiently address the issue. Accordingly, the IMO is considering several proposals characterized as “market based instruments” (MBIs) and other hybrid proposals to create
