MRV Compliance: What Lies Ahead?

The deadline for shipping companies to submit their MRV monitoring plans for verification expired on August 31.

The EU Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) regulation requires ship owners and operators to annually monitor, report and verify CO2 emissions for vessels larger than 5,000 GT and which call at any EU port, the objective being reduction of greenhouse gas emissions within the EU.

Emission data collection per ship shall commence on 1 January 2018 – based on the approved monitoring plans – while verification will start in early 2019.

The first milestone in the process has been reached, but what lies ahead?

As explained by DNV GL, an accredited verifier, verifiers have up to 31 December 2017 to verify the monitoring plans.

“When the monitoring plans have been verified by DNV GL, the owners will receive a Statement of Compliance,” the company said.

Once the data is verified by a third-party organization and sent to a central database, presumably managed by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the aggregated ship emission and efficiency data will be published by the European Commission by June 30, 2019 and then every consecutive year.

However, there are still certain uncertainties with respect to aligning the EU rules with the IMO regulations.

Namely, this spring the IMO agreed to implement a global system for fuel consumption data that will provide global CO2 emissions data. Monitoring and reporting on a per-ship basis is expected to start on January 1, 2019. While detailed technical development is still ongoing, the system and the date of its entry into force is expected to be agreed to in October of this year.

“The IMO system has many similarities to the EU system and may trigger an EU review of the MRV regulation, conceivably leading to changes aimed at aligning the EU MRV with the IMO systems. This process is politically complicated and will take time; we expect to see both systems operating in parallel, at least for some years,” DNV GL said.

“It is too early, however, to specify the details and practical implications of having two similar but not identical regimes during this period.”

“We recommend for all of our customers take action early on, already in 2017, to establish processes for data collection from ships. This will give you time to take corrective actions in case of in compliance with the regulations and requirements,” DNV GL said.