According to the report, annual emissions from global shipping equal about 1.12 billion tonnes of CO2, or an estimated 4.5 percent of global carbon emissions.

"This is a clear failure of the system," Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, was quoted as saying in the newspaper, after having been contacted about the contents of the study.

"The shipping industry has so far escaped publicity. It has been left out of the climate change discussion. I hope (shipping emissions) will be included in the next UN agreement. It would be a cop-out if it was not. It tells me that we have been ineffective at tackling climate change so far."

Prior to the study, which was carried out by the International Maritime Organisation, a UN agency, it was estimated that shipping was responsible for around 400 million tonnes of CO2.

By comparison, according to The Guardian, the aviation industry -- which has been pressured to use cleaner fuels -- is responsible for an estimated 650 million tonnes of the gas.

Emissions from merchant shipping are not taken into account by the European Union when making its targets for cutting greenhouse gases.

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