Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) supported the criticism for the carbon intensity indicator (CII) regulation, citing worries that the methodology used could lead to unwanted results and penalization.
Amendments to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex VI enter into force today (1 November, 2022), introducing the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) and Carbon Intensity Indicator (CCI).
CII is a measure of how efficiently a ship transports goods or passengers and is given in grams of CO2 emitted per cargo-carrying capacity and nautical mile. The ship is then given an annual rating ranging from A to E, whereby the rating thresholds will become increasingly stringent towards 2030. The CII applies to all cargo, RoPax and cruise ships above 5,000 GT.
Yearly CII is calculated based on reported IMO DCS data and the ship is given a rating from A to E. For ships that achieve a D rating for three consecutive years or an E rating in a single year, a corrective action plan needs to be developed as part of the SEEMP and approved.
An enhanced SEEMP with an implementation plan for achieving the required CII also needs to be approved and kept on board.
Commenting on the regulation, an MSC spokesman stated that:
As things stand, the proposed methodology could lead to situations in which a vessel’s rating would worsen simply because it spends more time in port. We respectfully question whether this unintended consequence could be avoided by amending the methodology
He also added that MSC considers vital the fact that CII should not “penalise vessels trading on shorter distances and while waiting alongside.”
However, MSC made it clear that it will fully comply with the CII regulation through the adoption of several measures, noting that it was very well prepared to do so.
As there are no net zero CO2 emission fuels available at scale to our industry in the short-term, MSC will continue to make energy efficiency performance improvements to help ensure that the fleet keeps pace with the evolving regulatory standards in 2023 and beyond
What is more, MSC expects CII to absorb around 7-10% of capacity across the global container fleet.
