The Government prepares a ‘green’ tax for cruise ships and other large ships

Environmental taxation will take a new step in Catalonia. The Catalan government has begun to prepare the implementation of the tax on large ships, to comply with one of the provisions contained in the Canvi Climàtic law approved by the Parliament in 2017. The delay in the roll-out of this tax had been the subject of some criticism.

The Minister of Territori i Sostenibilitat, Damià Calvet, declared that this year the regulation of the new tax will be elaborated, with the aim that in 2021 it can enter into force and be fully operational.

The tax is expected to be set based on emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur, two of the main pollutants caused by ships, which emit these gases to burn heavy fossil fuels in their operations.

In the case of Barcelona, the port is one of the relevant sources of pollution, which has forced those responsible for the Port to ask the Ministry for the Ecological Transition for an electrification plan of its main docks to stop burning fuel.

The Catalan Government, after many difficulties of all kinds, culminated in 2019 the approval of the CO2 tax on vehicles, which will begin to be applied next year.

The new tax must penalize the emissions of ships in the port both during docking maneuvers and during their stay when they are moored.

Calvet did not want to comment on the volume of possible income for the coffers of the Generalitat. A report by Transport and Environment revealed that Barcelona is the European city with the highest pollution caused by cruise ships

Fewer flights in El Prat?

On the other hand, when asked about the barcelona city council’s proposals on El Prat airport, the Minister of Territori i Sostenibilitat, Damià Calvet, said that he did not feel so identified with the idea of a “limitation of activities” or flights, but with “the decarbonization of activities”; and, in this sense, he opined that “technology advances in our favor.”

The Barcelona government group has proposed to review environmentally the plan that once meant the expansion of El Prat airport to veto new developments, which would mean slowing down port expansion.

Calvet added that “if the City Council wants a reduction in flights from El Prat, that is something that must be defined by the Ministry of Development, Aena and the Communes.”

The Minister Calvet keeps distances from the proposal of Colau on the airport

Calvet added that if this proposal is agreed, the Generalitat will “listen” to it but previously it should be debated, programmed and approved by the central administration and the Council of Ministers, “where Colau’s political formation is also represented,” he insisted.

Calvet also admitted – already entering into more specific aspects of the airport debate – that mobility “from point to point” (from Madrid to Barcelona) “it is more efficient by train than by plane”, according to energy and climate efficiency criteria; however, we must take into account “the connectivity” that these two cities bring.

“If they present this proposal (assuming that it entails a limitation of flights), we will evaluate it, but the Generalitat does not feel challenged,” he said.

Catalan Summit

These statements were made at the presentation of the next Catalan climate emergency summit to be held on Friday in Barcelona.

This meeting culminates a series of 12 working sessions in which the Catalan government has asked companies and various social and institutional actors to be more involved in actions against climate change, although on a voluntary basis.

Almost 200 Catalan companies, involved in the process to assume new additional commitments, although voluntary, to combat the climate crisis

The day seeks to start a greater involvement of all these sectors.

“We do not want to centrifuge the responsibility of the Government towards companies, but we ask them for an additional, extra effort, to act quickly that the citizen asks us against the climate crisis,” he said.

On Friday, a document will be released with the general and sectoral commitments of the companies involved. A total of 191 companies are participating in this process.

The approach, according to Calvet, has been to question companies to answer this question: “what else can you do against the climate crisis, beyond what you have already been doing?”.

Damià Calvet

We do not want to centrifuge the responsibility of the Government towards the companies, but we ask them for an additional effort”

In the session of presentation of these results on Friday, three dialogue tables will take place, in which interventions related to the local world will be grouped (with the presence of representatives of various local administrations), innovation (with spokespersons of companies and institutions) and relevant examples of action (in charge of other companies).

The day will be closed by the president of the Generalitat, Joaquim Torra, and is presented as a continuation of the initiatives of the Government since it declared the climate emergency, in May 2019.

Both the minister and the secretary of Medi Ambient, Marta Subirà, insisted that this summit is not the end of a process, as it will have continuity. For Marta Subirà, the commitments of companies and institutions can be evaluated in the future. It is sought that the day is not the scene of a mere voluntarist gesture, but that it is something like a “notarial act” that makes it possible to make that subsequent follow-up of the commitments acquired.

“The challenge we face is of such magnitude that the solution cannot be given only by the government, but the involvement of the whole society is required,” says Subirà.

Source: The Vanguard