Fisheries and climate – how to handle fuel subsidies to fisheries

Climate change and emissions of carbon dioxide is an important issue that has gained increasing attention over the years. Taxes on fuel consumption have been implemented in many countries to decrease emissions, but several sectors, such as international shipping and fisheries, have been exempt from taxes. The exemptions result in comparatively low fuel costs and the incentives to decrease fuel consumption are weak.

Low profitability is a common characteristic of many fisheries around the world and the introduction of a fuel tax would increase costs and might thus be problematic for the long run development of the sector. As an alternative it might be possible to manage fisheries in a manner that reduces overcapacity and let fish stocks increase to an optimal level. Such a solution would result in a profitable fishery that uses less fuel than in the current situation.

In this project we investigate how fisheries in different Nordic countries are affected by 1) the introduction of a fuel tax 2) the introduction of a biologically and economically sustainable fishery and 3) the introduction of a fuel tax in combination with a sustainable fishery.

The project will be finalized in spring 2017.

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