The controversial EU Regulation on the monitoring, reporting and verification of Carbon Dioxide emissions from maritime transport came into force on 1 July 2015. To ensure uniform implementation of the regulation, the Commission has established two Subgroups that will look at the monitoring, verification and accreditation processes. The first meeting of the two subgroups, chaired by the European Commission and composed by experts coming from different backgrounds including industry, consultants, academia and Member States, held their inaugural meeting in Brussels on 7th and 8th July.
The MRV verification and accreditation subgroup held lively and productive discussions, with industry representatives, including the UK Chamber, raising a number of substantial issues with respect to the concept papers presented. In particular, the subgroup considered development of specific rules for the competencies of the verifiers, the assessment of the conformity of the monitoring plan and annual emission report by the verifier and methods of accreditation of verifiers.
Unfortunately, it is now more evident that the verification process of the monitoring plan and annual emission reports – based on the Aviation EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) – will be a very costly task for the industry.
On the other hand, the monitoring subgroup dealt with more technical issues, which included cargo parameter options and other key elements, such as distance travelled and total time spend at sea. With regard to the offshore sector and dredgers, the Commission established an ad hoc expert working group chaired by the UK Chamber of Shipping to further assess the need for sector-specific parameters, determine the amount of cargo carried and propose options, where appropriate, for these category of ships.
Accurately assessing a ship’s energy efficiency is challenging. However, it is made more challenging still when the EU Commission’s intentions on future policy measures are unknown. Any system and parameter option could have adverse impact and potentially distort competition.
Yet, under these conditions of uncertainty the industry is now required to make decisions.
The UK Chamber of Shipping has continuously voiced that a global MRV system regualted by the IMO would be the most appropriate means to achieve a reduction of emissions from shipping.
However, in light of lack of progress at the IMO towards this aim, the UK Chamber has established a voluntary carbon emission reporting scheme in order to take a proactive industry stance. The scheme, launched on 1 January 2015, aims to support and influence the IMO and EU discussions on the development of an appropriate and workable monitoring, reporting and verification system, through evaluating the proposed methods. Halfway through the scheme, there are indications that some of the proposals will have serious implications for the operational energy efficiency of a ship.
The EU MRV regulation aims to reduce CO2 emissions by establishing a MRV system and publishing ship’s emission data in order to remove market barriers and promote cost-effective measures. However, failing to consider a system that could be easily and fully aligned and welcomed by the IMO and be as low-cost to the industry as possible, will be a backward step and will raise concerns about how pragmatic are any promised reductions.
Source: UK Chamber of Shipping
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