@ Copenhagen

The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP 15) did not succeed in addressing emissions from international aviation and maritime transport.
To contribute to the ongoing negotiations the proposal for Innovative Financing and IMERS was clarified and debated at the official COP15 side event, 9 Dec, 2009, Bella Center, Copenhagen.
Presentation is available (0.4 MB).

The IMERS proposal has also been discussed in other relevant side events and reviewed in several publications launched at COP 15 (such as the comprehensive The Little Climate Finance Book, available in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese).

The proposal is ticking off the negotiation boxes:

• It complies with climate Convention principles (including the CBDR)
  
• It's global
  
• It's simple but not simplistic
  
• It puts a carbon price on shipping emissions, equal to the global carbon price (i.e. shipping would pay exactly the same price as any other industry; no more, no less)
  
• It's easily affordable (as shipping is an energy efficient mode of transport)
  
• It's win-win: good for environment and good for shipping/trade
  
• It would deliver ambitious emission reductions efficiently, while raising $billions annually for action on climate change
  
• It's flexible to accommodate national circumstances, including of the USA
  
• It can be implemented from 2013
  
• It does not require setting a global cap on shipping emissions
  

Finally, the international transport would benefit from the technology funding generated, at a scale greater than in any other industry so far, in order to drive trade and development. The end user cost, minute anyway, would be bring positive returns through reduced cost of transport, effectively bringing benefits not costs.
A layman 1-page outline is available, entitled: 2 for 1: Financing climate action and Cutting shipping emissions (0.2 MB).

Unfortunately, the actual negotiation process that took place at COP15 was not conducive for any concrete financing proposals. It became however even clearer that innovative/alternative off-budget financing will be essential to deliver predictable financing for climate action from 2013 onwards.

Progress in Barcelona

The proposal has been submitted under the track known as 1b (iv), called:

Enhanced action on mitigation and its associated means of implementation;
Subgroup on paragraph 1 (b) (iv) of the Bali Action Plan
(cooperative sectoral approaches and sector specific actions).

Specifically, it is incorporated in the paragraph 26 of the non-paper No. 49 (produced at the session in Barcelona).

The proposal is linked to the provision of financial resources, namely to paragraphs referring to:
"Levies on emissions from international maritime transport for developed countries ...", and similar.
See the latest: Non-paper No. 54, and Non-paper No. 34.
In a nutshell, the submission proposes to:

Implement a market-based levy on emissions from international maritime transport which differentiates between responsibilities [and capabilities] of developed and developing countries. Such levy would apply globally.

The scheme would raise circa $10bn+ annually for action on climate change in developing countries. At the same time, it would reduce emissions, and generate benefits to end customers through reduced costs of transport. A short presentation is available (0.4 MB).