Paris Summit Ends Without Major Agreement on Shipping Emissions Tax

The Paris summit on finance and climate ended without a major announcement on Friday, with participants stopping short of a deal to create a tax on greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping. Despite the lack of an agreement, French President Emmanuel Macron said upcoming reforms of the international finance system would be assessed within the next two years.

The idea of a global tax on the emissions produced from international shipping has been gaining traction and could potentially be adopted at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations' agency regulating shipping. Some experts believe that a tax on shipping alone could raise $100 billion a year.

However, Macron suggested that China and the U.S were not supporting the idea. “If China and the U.S. and several key European countries are not on board, then you would put a tax in place that would not have any impact,” he said. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called the tax “a very constructive suggestion” and said that the U.S. will look into it. It remained unclear which countries attending the summit supported the proposal, which could be an important step toward getting a heavily-emitting industry to pitch in to the cost of fighting climate change.

In terms of concrete announcements in Paris, the International Monetary Fund has made $100 billion worth of assets - called Special Drawing Rights - available to certain vulnerable countries. The French presidency then said France would share 40% of its own assets from the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, debt-burdened Zambia reached a deal with several creditors including China to restructure $6.3 billion in loans, and Senegal reached a deal with the European Union and western allies to support its efforts to improve its access to energy and increase its share of renewable energy to 40% by 2030.The summit's participants also discussed the debt relief for poor nations, including the cancellation of loans, and a debt suspension clause for countries hit by extreme climatic events. Activists are also pushing for a tax on the fossil fuel industry and another one on financial transactions, but those two proposals appear to have little support from wealthier nations. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden defended his harsh public remarks on China, in which he called President Xi Jinping a dictator.

Biden said his words would have no negative impact on U.S.-China relations and that he still expects to meet with Xi sometime soon. Climate activists gathered in central Paris on Friday to make polluters pay for climate damage. "There will be no climate justice without making the polluters pay," said Patience Nabukala, part of the Fridays for Futures Uganda activist group. The Paris summit ended without a major announcement on the tax proposals, but its participants did agree to assess the upcoming reforms of the international finance system within the next two years. It remains to be seen if world leaders will take concrete steps to tackle climate change and poverty in the near future.