해상운송사업자에 대한 온실가스 규제

Since the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, abating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been regarded as an urgent global responsibility. GHGs linger in the atmosphere for decades, centuries, and even longer. When this is coupled with the fact that their impacts are mediated through various complex systems, the result is that climate change is practically irreversible on time scales that most of us care about. However, abatement matters because the nature and severity of the impacts are affected both by the absolute levels of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere and their rates of increase. Since abating GHG emissions imposes costs on emitters, the question of how to allocate these costs fairly has been at the center of climate ethics. Questions about the fairness of various abatement strategies are complicated by the fact that land use changes such as deforestation can also dramatically impact atmospheric concentrations of GHGs both by directly affecting emissions and by changing the biosphere's ability to sequester carbon. Unfortunately, these processes are difficult to characterize and measure. The regulation of GHG emissions in international shipping industry is very important at the present time. In this paper I have explored several aspects of debate in the shipping industry. Several ongoing processes to reduce GHG emissions is explored. Especially an economywide cap-and-trade system to limit the nation's GHG emissions would create a large new financial market. I conclude with a forward looking statement regarding the maritime sector.