#NoTaxShipFuel – Throughout the world, no tax is paid on ship-fuel or aircraft despite those sectors’ huge emissions, reports Frank McDonald at the COP21 Paris conference for The Irish Times.

International aviation and shipping have rightly been dubbed “the elephants in the room” at COP21, and there is now a real danger they will escape yet again from any requirement to cut their prodigious – and growing – carbon emissions, just as they’ve done for the past 20 years.

Galway-born Andrew Murphy, aviation specialist with the Brussels-based Transport & Environment lobby group, said the UN’s objective of limiting global warming to between 1.5 and 2 degrees would be “impossible unless we reduce emissions from these sectors”.

Aviation is responsible for 3 per cent of global carbon emissions, while shipping accounts for almost 3 per cent. Combined, they have an impact equal to Britain and Germany and are continuing to grow rapidly – up to 270 per cent by 2050.

For a chart showing shipping and aviation: annual historical and projected emissions click here in addition to more details the newspaper reports.