In International Shipping News 21/10/2016
Shipowners have been putting off the installation of carbon emissions monitoring systems to focus on cutting sulfur emissions, environmental verification body Verifavia said.
That means companies are not acting quickly enough to develop carbon emission monitoring systems in time for an EU regulation which came into force last year, Verifavia CEO Julien Dufour said Wednesday.
Regulation (EU) 2015/757 requires all ships of more than 5,000 gross mt that call at EU ports to have systems and practices providing clear and precise evidence of compliance, even for a one-off trip to the region.
Mandatory ship emissions monitoring will begin January 1, 2018, but owners should have submitted monitoring plans to verifiers by the end of August 2017. December 31, 2017, is the deadline for the successful assessment of the monitoring plan by the verifier.
Shipowners will have to present the first annual emissions assessment — verified by an independent auditor — by April 2019 and will have to carry the document of compliance on each ship by June 30, 2019.
The regulation will have important commercial implications for ships without a document of compliance, said Dufour.
If a ships fails to comply with this regulation for two consecutive years, port authorities will issue an expulsion order meaning the ship will be subsequently banned from entering EU ports.
As the results of the reporting scheme will be made public, companies will come under increased scrutiny and pressure to adopt sustainable shipping, Dufour said.
Meanwhile, the International Maritime Organization was expected to announce a global 0.5% sulfur cap on marine emissions from 2020 at a meeting in London next week.
LIMITED ACTION SO FAR
Of the worldwide fleet of 24,000-25,000 ships with more than 5,000 gt, about 10,000-12,000 vessels call at EU ports annually, Dufour said, adding very few have started preparing for compliance with this regulation.
“I think that most shipping companies are waiting for the last minute to do so because they perhaps think that they can do it quickly, he said.
However, getting systems and procedures in place can take several months.
“So, they must act now,” said Dufour, adding a lack of information about the regulation was also a factor.
“We are trying to tackle that aspect through increased engagement with shipowners through dialogues at events and meetings,” he said.
Another reason for the slow compliance uptake might be that some owners and operators think the IMO will likely annul the EU MRV as the IMO has its own carbon emissions MRV in place.
But the EU MRV regulation is here to stay and cannot be suspended so easily, Dufour said, adding the two regulations will run in parallel.
According to Dufour, the EU MRV was more robust. Under EU MRV, individual ship data will be made publicly available whereas under the IMO MRV, ship data though published, will not be traceable to any individual ship.
The EU MRV considers the actual amount of cargo on board whereas the IMO regulations takes the designed deadweight tonnage as a proxy for cargo volume, making determination of energy efficiency parameters less accurate.
Independent data verification will also likely be enforced more strictly as it will be monitored by the EU’s National Accreditation Bodies while IMO’s MRV implementation will be the responsibility of flag states, said Dufour.
Among the multiplicity of regulations that will come into force in coming years, it was imperative that shipping companies do not get distracted from the fact the deadline for submitting monitoring plans is just round the corner and shipowners and operators need to be ready for this change, Dufour said.
Verifavia is an independent Paris-based environmental verification, certification and auditing body for the aviation, airports and maritime transport sectors.
Source: Platts
