ECSA Says Ship Emissions Rules Must be Global, Warns on Dangers of EU Only System

ECSA Tuesday issued a call for emissions reduction schemes on shipping to be implemented globally as opposed to regional schemes.

The European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) Tuesday stressed the importance for emissions reduction schemes for shipping to be implemented globally, warning against moving ahead with a regional European scheme.

Speaking at a symposium on decarbonisation of shipping held in Antwerp, ECSA President Niels Smedegaard said that such "EU only" regional rules could not only hurt Europe's short sea shipping sector, but also deter international traffic from using European ports.

"The European Commission has not included shipping in its current review of the European Emissions Trading System. We believe this correctly reflects the reality that shipping is a global business and regional measures would have a directly distorting impact on European operators," said Smedegaard.

"A regional scheme would lead to carbon leakage as ships would start to avoid calling at EU ports. It would also gravely hurt the European short sea shipping sector, which would again be faced with an ‘EU only’ system."

The focus now, he said, should be on aligning the European Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Regulation with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO's) own data collection system, which is set to be formalised in October, 2016.

"This will ensure that European shipping will be covered by a single system, in an efficient manner without double work," said Smedegaard,

The symposium was organised by the Royal Belgian Shipowners’ Association, alongside ECSA, and Wärtsilä.

The event was attended by shipowners, engine makers, ship yards, ship designers, academia, and port authorities and centred on technical measures that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, exploring various measures used by early adopters to reduce the fleet emissions.

Earlier this month, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) announced that its member national shipowners' associations have agreed to launch a campaign to persuade the EU that aligning its regulations on CO2 shipping emissions monitoring with that of IMO is of "vital necessity."