EMEA News
ECSA Raises Concerns Over IMO CO2 Monitoring Rules
The European Community Shipowners' Association (ECSA) has said that it is concerned about new International Maritime Organization (IMO) carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring rules, which the organisation said brings up issues of data reliability and confidentiality.
The current proposal will apply to all ships above 5,000 gross tonnage (GT) coming and going from EU ports, and has a tentative start date of 2018.
Among others, the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system will require ships to report cargo-related data, which will help in measuring energy efficiency of ships.
"As ECSA we would have preferred the inclusion of cargo-related data to have simply been postponed until an agreement was reached at IMO," said ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven.
"We do however acknowledge that the negotiators took some of our concerns into account and have strengthened provisions on international alignment."
Verhoeven said that in addition to worries over the accuracy of reported cargo information and privacy, the organisation was also worried about the level of reporting responsibilities and obligations.
"We call upon the European Commission to actively engage in a confidence-building exercise with non-European Member States at IMO, to ensure that the common objective of establishing an international MRV instrument will be achieved," he said.
A previous MRV proposal which would have extended the rules to ships of 400 GT also met opposition among the ECSA earlier this year, who said that it would unfairly burden smaller ships.
