ICS: EU Should Wait on CO2 Monitoring

Morooka said reaching a global emissions monitoring plan is the priority

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Board of Directors recommends that European Union (EU) states defer an agreement on the monitoring and reporting of ships' carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to allow more time for a global agreement to move forward.

At a recent meeting in London, the board suggested the EU should put off its emissions plan until after the next meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)'s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in April.

"Our priority is to assure the primacy of IMO as the industry's global regulator and the successful development of a global system will require the support of all of the world's major flag states," said ICS Chairman Masamichi Morooka.

"It is unfortunate that the debate has been complicated by the parallel proposal from the European Commission, now being considered by the European Parliament, for a unilateral regional system of CO2 reporting that is unlikely to be compatible with whatever will be agreed at IMO."

The board also reiterated its position that the monitoring and reporting system ultimately adopted by the IMO should be easily administered and based on fuel consumption and that it should not be used for the development of a market based measure.

The shipping group said it supports a "three phase" approach proposed by the U.S., which would first establish the monitoring and reporting system and later determine whether to develop a mandatory energy indexing system for existing ships.

The board also decided that ICS will not encourage nations that have not yet ratified the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention to do so, arguing that they should wait for the resolution of implementation problems.

"The industry still has very serious concerns with respect to the lack of robustness of the current IMO type-approval process for the very expensive new treatment equipment that will be required, as well as about the criteria to be used for sampling ballast water during Port State Control inspections," Morooka said.

Connie Hedegaard, EU commissioner for climate action, said recently that she hopes European leaders will reach a deal on the rules before parliamentary elections in May.