The United Kingdom shipping industry has proposed creating a global cap-and-trade program for a sector responsible for transporting 80 percent of the world's trade goods.

The program would put a price on maritime greenhouse gas emissions and incentivize companies to adopt low-carbon technologies. The U.K. Chamber of Shipping suggested the emissions scheme because the sector is one of the last big industries to allude the regulatory constraints of greenhouse gas emissions reduction requirements.

"Although an emissions trading scheme for the shipping industry remains a concept rather than a defined path (and many parts of the global industry are still convinced that this is the best choice of action), we believe that the industry -- if it wished to remain in control of its own destiny -- must decide upon a direction of travel and strive to deliver it," Martin Watson, the Chamber's president, said in a statement.

The industry is responsible for roughly 3 percent of worldwide emissions but it would be difficult to bring it into the fold of international or regional emissions trading schemes because ships move between countries and sometimes rarely visit their home nation, making the allocation process a challenge.

The industry said it provides one of the most efficient methods of transporting goods in terms of emissions. Since the 1970s, modern container ships have increased efficiency, emitting a quarter of the carbon pollution but able to carry as much as 10 times the cargo. Watson hopes the industry will take a leadership position ahead of the 2009 international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Earlier this year, dozens of ports from around the world endorsed the World Ports Climate Declaration, an initiative that calls for the development of carbon footprints and creation of a worldwide indexing system to reward clean ships.