Shipping companies must be prepared to begin monitoring and reporting vessel greenhouse gas emissions for ships of more than 500gt loading or unloading at European ports. Owners will need plans for monitoring, and will need to submit verified emissions reports to the European Union for the whole voyage.
This is part of the EU’s monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) regulation for CO2 emissions that comes into force next year. Regulation (EU) 2015/757 requires owners to have systems and practices that provide clear and precise evidence of compliance. Mandatory ship emissions monitoring will begin from 1 January 2018, but owners should have submitted monitoring plans by the end of August 2017.
Owners need to have the appropriate IT infrastructure and support in place to meet the requirements. They need to have these plans verified so they demonstrate MRV compliance and have staff trained in the reporting.
Verifavia Shipping, which provides verification services, advises owners to create monitoring plans now to prevent delays in 2017. “With thousands of ships needing to be assessed from 2017, there will be a bottleneck so owners should begin MRV plans now,” said Verifavia chief executive Julien Dufour. “Ship operators can select the monitoring method and have a plan ready by August next year. They should not wait till the last minute, but should start now.”
Owners will already be monitoring emissions in some form, possibly by monitoring fuel consumption, so getting a compliant MRV plan could be straightforward. But verification takes time. “The monitoring plan could just be checking that procedures are compliant, and owners can base MRV reporting on existing infrastructure,” said Mr Dufour. “But charterers will start asking for MRV-ready ships and the rate of enquiry is still lower than expected. We are expecting problems in 2017 if this rate does not speed up.”
Verifavia has worked with Greek shipowners to verify MRV plans. Class society ABS has worked with tanker owners Maran Tankers, Thenamaris, Minerva Marine, Euronav and Tsakos Group, and bulk carrier operator Golden Union to prepare and verify MRV plans.
