Tag: EU MRV Regulation

EU co-legislators reached an informal agreement last week on the Commission proposal for a Regulation on the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of CO2 emissions of maritime transport. The agreement paves the way for a European MRV system that will become operational as of 2018, applying to ships above 5000 GT arriving and departing from EU ports, regardless of their flag and ownership. The Regulation is meant to be a stepping stone towards a global MRV instrument, which is currently being discussed at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Apart from data on CO2 emissions and distance sailed, the negotiators agreed that the Regulation will also require ships to report cargo-related information. “Whilst the inclusion of cargo-related information allows the measurement of energy efficiency of vessels, there are concerns regarding data reliability and confidentiality as well as reporting responsibilities and obligations”, said ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven in an initial reaction and continued by saying that “This explains why IMO approaches the issue with great care.”   “As ECSA we would have preferred the inclusion of cargo-related data to have simply been postponed until an agreement was reached at IMO. We do however acknowledge that the negotiators took some of our ...

European shipowners are concerned by the intention of the Italian Presidency of the Council to move full steam ahead with an inter-institutional agreement on the EU Regulation for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification system of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport (EU MRV Regulation), which could potentially include commercial and operational information. ECSA urges EU decision-makers ahead of the trialogue negotiations to re-focus on developments at international level, lest unilateral EU action lead to regional differentiation and ultimately obstruct progress in the IMO (International maritime Organisation). In 2013, the European Commission put forward the MRV proposal with the intention of paving the way for an international solution. The IMO has in parallel been making progress towards establishing a global monitoring system. Currently, the work on the EU instrument is proceeding at a faster pace than the work of the IMO, and therein lies the risk. The EU instrument should be as simple and straightforward as possible, so as to be easily adaptable at a later stage to incorporate the outcome of the IMO process. Moreover, the simpler the EU tool remains, the more it will facilitate international negotiations instead of pre-empting them. “The stated goal of EU regulators has until now ...