Large ships that dock or anchor in Catalan ports (tankers, cruise ships, ferries, container ships) must pay a new tax for polluting emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particles. The Government's intention is for its proposal to be approved by law in Parliament before the end of the year and that the new tax can be implemented in the second half of 2024. The Generalitat hopes to raise 7.5 million euros per year.
The tax penalizes pollution from large ships with one euro per kilogram of NOx or particle emissions, and will affect those with a capacity or volume greater than 5,000 tons.
The tax is directed especially towards large ships when they dock in the port or make a stopover in Barcelona, Tarragona and Palamós, basically.
The port emissions tax will affect, for example, 80% of the vessels that dock in Barcelona, which will pay around 759 euros.
The Minister for Climate Action, David Mascort, who has presented the draft law on ship emissions in ports, has admitted that the levy is lower than what was initially planned.
He argued that the resulting amount "is the result of the consensus reached after the allegations presented" by the different economic agents, who had considered the amount excessive. Likewise, the tax will not have a gradual increase in price as initially planned.
Specifically, the Catalan Government had initially planned to raise 9.72 million euros in the first year, an amount that would increase until reaching 34 million in the third year (2026), according to the economic report presented that accompanied the draft law.
However, ultimately the amount will remain fixed during the first three years of application. There will, therefore, not be a progressive increase in the quota but rather its application will be evaluated subsequently, so that only then would it be decided to increase it or not based on the assessment made. "The quota will be reviewed after three years," he said.
It remains to be seen how this issue is resolved and what the groups think in the parliamentary debate on the law.
This is one of the taxes included in the Catalan law of Canvi Climàtic (2017), with which the CO2 tax on cars was already introduced. Now, a third party is missing that would tax the industries.
“They are taxes that serve to improve people's health,” explained Minister Mascort, who referred to the high impact that pollution has on health. Emissions from ships, according to him, account for 19% of the emissions that occur in the Barcelona area.
He also justified the tax on the need to promote “green and sustainable” mobility also in maritime navigation.
“We want to accompany the big ships in this energy and mobility transition,” he said. "It's a tax on those who pollute, not on those who don't pollute," she declared.
As of the entry into force of the tax, the tax will fall on shipping companies and owners of ferries, tanks, container ships, cruise ships, oil tankers, cargo ships and other large ships that dock in Catalan ports.
The key will be to determine if such "weak" quotas will change the behavior of this sector and if the tax will be a stimulus that will make it opt for introducing improvements to achieve cleaner transportation and fuel.
"We monitor these indicators in the Barcelona area; ships account for 19% of pollution; and if we see that there is no favorable evolution, we will act accordingly," said the councilor.
The tax is final in nature and the income derived from it (those 7.5 million euros annually) will be used to fund the fund for the protection of the atmospheric environment.
This fund finances public expenses and investments in terms of improving atmospheric quality and will be allocated to actions in the field of "sustainable mobility" or the modernization of air pollution measurement stations.
On the other hand, bonuses have been established for those ships that have a certificate that accredits energy improvement by approved entities.
Reductions in the tax base are also established for connection to the port's electrical network and for the supply of all the ship's services using electrical energy entirely supplied by an internal battery.
Finally, stopovers made by companies that provide service on lines of public interest, with origin and destination in Palma, Maó and Ibiza, are subsidized.
Large ships that provide public services, those that are forced to dock or anchor in the event of force majeure, and those that carry out humanitarian aid activities are exempt from taxes.
In Barcelona, 80% of the boats must present this settlement (1,472 boats out of 1,886) and in Tarragona, 75% (892 out of 1,179). The settlement (which will be delivered at the entrance to the port along with the rest of the documentation) will be semi-annual, and not annual as in the case of the CO2 tax on cars.
In response to those who have predicted that the tax could reduce traffic from the port of Barcelona, as indicated by its previous director, Lluís Salvadó, David Mascort has assured that "we are sure that the tax will not generate relocation." And he reiterated: "the quota, which can be reviewed every three years, has been the result of an attempt to reach a consensus among all the sectors represented in the public information process."
