The shipping industry voiced its disappointment by the European Parliament’s adoption of a regional EU Regulation on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of individual ship emissions of CO2 on Tuesday.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), BIMCO and Intercargo said in a joint statement that even though the vote was expected they were disappointed by the confirmation of the EU decision to pre-empt the current International Maritime Organization (IMO) negotiations on a global data collection system on shipping’s CO2 emissions by adopting a unilateral, regional MRV Regulation – which will also apply to non-EU flag ships trading to Europe.
According to the statement, there is a danger that the EU initiative will be seen by non-EU nations as an attempt to present them with a fait accompli.
“The EU Regulation includes controversial elements, such as the publication of commercially sensitive data on individual ships, an idea which had previously been rejected by the majority of IMO governments during a meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee in October 2014,” the statement reads.
At the IMO, negotiations on additional measures to help reduce CO2 continue at the MEPC in two weeks’ time.
“It will be vital for EU Member States to explain how the new EU Regulation can be implemented in a way which is fully compatible with whatever might be agreed by IMO for global application, in the interests of avoiding the unhelpful complication of a separate regional regime,” the statement added.
The shipping industry associations reiterated that the latest IMO Green House Gas Study, published in 2014, found that international shipping had reduced its total CO2 emissions by more than 10% between 2007 and 2012, despite an increase in maritime trade.