"There was unanimous understanding that the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) wasn't doing enough," said European Commission spokeswoman on the environment, Barbara Helfferich after the meeting in Brussels.

There was general support for a Dutch plan to ask the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to come up with proposals by the end of the year on how to tackle the problem of NOX (nitrogen oxides) and sulphur dioxide emissions from vessels, she said.

Shipping emissions are not included in a new set of climate-change battling and energy saving proposals put forward by the European Commission in January, covering everything from emissions trading to CO2 from cars.

Shipping emissions amount to around five percent of the global total and that ratio will only rise if solutions are sought in other sectors but not on the high seas, said Helfferich.

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