BRUSSELS—The European Union (EU) plans to push this year for curbs on ship emissions linked to climate change, broadening a crackdown that already targets the energy, manufacturing, airline and car industries.

The European Commission intends to draft a law that would limit ship discharges of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, said spokesman Barbara Helfferich. One option is adding the maritime industry to the EU’s emissions-trading system, which requires companies that exceed their CO2 quotas to buy permits from businesses that emit less.

“There needs to be legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from ships and it may involve including the industry in the emissions-trading system,’’ Helfferich said by telephone Wednesday in Brussels. Any proposal by the commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, would need the support of national governments and the European Parliament.

Europe wants to expand emissions trading to reduce air pollution blamed for higher world temperatures, rising sea levels and more frequent heat waves, storms and floods. The 27-nation EU says such a market-based mechanism can help overcome the international impasse over tackling climate change.

The EU introduced the system for CO2 from power plants as well as steel, paper, cement and other factories in 2005, plans to include European and foreign airlines as soon as 2011 and aims to add the aluminum and chemical industries as well as other greenhouse gases in 2013. The bloc also plans to impose a separate limit in 2012 on car emissions of CO2, the main greenhouse gas.

Shipping probably accounts for more than 3 percent of global CO2 releases, according to the European Federation for Transport and Environment, which says the maritime industry is the second fastest-growing emitter of the gas after airlines.

The EU plan to cap emissions by ships mirrors what happened before the commission’s 2006 proposal to add air transport to the emissions-trading system—a step that countries including the US oppose.

The EU said regulating airline emissions was justified by the failure of the International Civil Aviation Organization to act. The bloc now says a lack of progress at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) warrants European restrictions on ship emissions.

“The delays at the IMO over reducing ship emissions leave us little option but to take the lead,’’ Helfferich said. (Bloomberg)

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BRUSSELS—The European Union (EU) plans to push this year for curbs on ship emissions linked to climate change, broadening a crackdown that already targets the energy, manufacturing, airline and car industries.

HONG KONG—Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., Hong Kong’s largest container line, fell the most in a month after it failed to propose another special dividend from the sale of container terminals.