Shipping might have thought it was out in the clear post-Paris and COP21, but there are still plenty of bodies around the world targeting maritime emissions. The latest to lend heft to the argument in favour of carbon taxes is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a report out yesterday, the IMF said carbon taxes should be levied against both shipping and aviation.

IMF reckons up to $25bn could be raised from a tax on aviation and shipping fuels, which would help developing countries adapt to climate change.

“There are challenges,” the internal report noted, “including the need for international coordination (especially important for maritime, given the mobility of the tax base) and legal issues (especially for aviation, due to treaties and bilateral air service agreements limiting fuel taxes) but the practicalities should be manageable. A global $30 per ton CO2 charge on these fuels could have raised about $25 billion for climate finance in 2014, even after compensation for developing countries.”

Shipping and aviation were eventually left out of the final text emanating from last month’s UN-convened climate change talks in Paris.

Many other influential bodies have urged for shipping and aviation to stump up for a carbon tax.

Last October, for instance, the International Transport Forum came out in favour of a carbon tax for shipping and very swingeing goals for emission cuts in the coming decades.

The ITF, a research arm of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said shipping should reduce carbon emissions by half over the next 35 years and entirely by 2080 with the International Maritime Organization taking the lead.

Among the measures ITF suggested was a carbon tax for shipping set at about $25 per tonne of CO2, the receipts of which could feed into the Green Climate Fund.