Legislators look to reduce emissions in shipping industry

The national legislature plans to add clauses about reducing carbon emissions in the shipping industry to the Marine Environment Protection Law as it mulls over a draft amendment.

The draft was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for its first reading on Tuesday.

The law was last amended in 2017, one year before China announced its climate goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and realizing carbon neutrality before 2060.

To reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, the country will encourage the consumption of new and clean energy in vessels and make efforts to phase out older ones that use more energy and cause pollution, according to the draft.

Governments at the county-level and above in coastal regions should create and implement plans to build and upgrade port infrastructure used to supply shore power to anchored ships, it said.

"The capacity of shore power supply at ports should be in line with the demands of anchored vessels," the document notes.

In turn, anchored ships should consume shore power in accordance with relevant government rules, it said, and port runners and shore power suppliers should offer vessels access to such energy sources.

The draft will also mandate that governments at the county-level and above in coastal regions provide financial support or preferential policies to companies that are upgrading and operating shore power supply facilities, as well as to builders of vessels powered by new and clean energy.