France to push shipping carbon tax at finance summit

France hopes to give a "political boost" to a proposed tax on shipping emissions at a climate finance summit it is hosting next week, the French president's office said Friday.

President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a conference on June 22-23 aimed at revamping the global development aid system to combat climate change and poverty.

Two Pacific nations, the Marshall and Solomon Islands, have been pushing for years for a $100-per-tonne carbon tax on the maritime industry, whose greenhouse gas emissions account for around three percent of the global total.

"We hope that we will give a true political boost" to the proposal at the Paris summit, a Macron aide said on condition of anonymity.

"We need new resources" to fight climate change and poverty as the "needs are so huge", the aide said.

Macron will host dozens of foreign leaders at the summit, which aims to transform the international financial system that emerged after World War II with the creation of the World Bank and International Monetary fund.

It comes two weeks before a meeting of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, at which the carbon tax is expected to be discussed.



AFP