The member national shipowners' associations of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) will start a campaign to persuade the EU of the necessity of aligning its regulation on the monitoring of shipping's CO2 emissions.
The ICS wants the EU to apply the regulation as has been agreed by the IMO. Speaking after the ICS AGM in Tokyo last week, the (newly elected) ICS Chairman, Esben Poulsson, explained: 'Shipping is a global industry requiring global rules, in order to have a truly level playing field.'
He continued: 'While ICS fully supports the mandatory IMO data collection mechanism, many non-EU governments initially had some reservations which were only overcome by the industry arguing that the alternative to IMO making progress would be a unilateral regional regime being imposed by the EU. The EU needs to live up to its side of the bargain and align its regime with the IMO system that's now been agreed by the entire international community.'
EU Regulation on the MRV of Ships' CO2 Emissions
The EU Regulation on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of ships' CO2 emissions was adopted in 2015 and will be fully implemented in three years’ time. But all ships trading to Europe, including non-EU flag ships, will be legally required to comply with some of its provisions by as early as 2017.
Sign of Bad Faith
Significantly, however, the EU Regulation contains a provision to the effect that the European Commission can propose adjustments to ensure alignment with any similar regime adopted by IMO.
'The key thing that really concerns the shipping industry is that if the EU refuses to realign its regime with IMO, as its own Regulation permits it to do, this will be perceived by other governments as a sign of bad faith, which could then potentially inhibit the consideration of any additional CO2 reduction measures by IMO.'
