Aerial photo taken on July 14, 2020 shows a fish boat sailing in an abalone breeding area in Lianjiang county of East China's Fujian province. [Photo/Xinhua]

The country's top legislature plans to include clauses on reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the shipping sector into the Marine Environment Protection Law, as it mulls a draft amendment.

The amendment was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for a first reading on Tuesday.

Adopted in 1982, the law has been amended four times — the last time in 2017, three years before China announced its target to reach peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and realize carbon neutrality before 2060.

"As China accelerates the construction of an ecological civilization, the Marine Environment Protection Law has not been able to adapt to the new circumstances. It urgently needs to be amended," said Wang Hongyao, vice-chairman of the NPC Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee, as he briefed the NPC Standing Committee on the amendment on Tuesday.

To reduce the emissions of greenhouse gas and other pollutants, China will encourage the use of new and clean energies in vessels and work to phase out old, high-energy-consumption vessels with emissions, according to the amendment.

Coastal region governments at county-level and above should work out and implement plans for the construction and upgrading of infrastructure to supply shore power to ships in ports, it says.

"Shore power supply capacity in ports should be sufficient to meet the demands of docked vessels," the document notes.

Docked ships should use shore power in accordance with government regulations. Port runners and shore power suppliers should offer power access to vessels.

Vessel owners, port runners and shore power suppliers may be subject to penalties of 10,000 to 500,000 yuan ($1,400 to $70,000) if they violate rules pertaining to shore power consumption.

The draft amendment also plans to make it compulsory for coastal region governments at the county-level and above to provide financial support and implement preferential policies to enable the upgrading and operation of shore power supply facilities, as well as the building of vessels powered by clean and new energies.

Shipping is a major global contributor to carbon dioxide emissions. A 2020 study by the International Maritime Organization estimated that shipping emitted 1,056 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018, accounting for almost 2.9 percent of the global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions that year.