EU Revises Ship Exhaust Gas Emission Monitoring Bar

EU shipowners say they applaud the European Parliament’s change of heart on the monitoring of CO2 emissions, lifting the bar of included vessels from 400gt to 5,000gt and above.

Previously, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee of the EP had endorsed the decision of Greek Rapporteur MEP Theodoros Skylakakis to extend the scope of the proposal by including smaller ships of 400 GT or above, as well as more types of emissions. Today however, the EP shifted its position by ultimately rejecting both the extension in terms of GT and additional emissions, thus aligning the scope of its position with the Commission’s proposal of solely monitoring CO2 emissions from ships of 5000GT or above.

“EU shipowners are certainly relieved that the Commission’s proposal was finally preserved by the European Parliament” commented Patrick Verhoeven, ECSA Secretary General and added “Not only is this decision sensible, it also allows the two co-legislators to see eye-to-eye on this particular issue, as the Council has indicated its clear preference for the Commission’s initial proposal”.

Once the Council adopts its own position on the Commission proposal, the negotiations between the Council and the new Parliament can commence, most probably in Autumn 2014. This will buy the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) some time to further develop a global data collection system for fuel consumption on ships, on which promising developments took place during the last IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) earlier this month.

ECSA add that the vote, while maintaining the possibility of the establishment of a potential EU MRV system, also eases the way towards a global solution on CO2 emissions from shipping.