EU MRV - First verification companies accredited by UKAS
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has announced which companies will be able to provide verification services to shipowners as part of EU MRV Regulation 757/2015.
The EU Monitoring, Reporting and Verification regulation, which came into force in 2015, requires ships above 5000gt to monitor and report their carbon emissions for all voyages to and from EU member states.
Shipping companies operating in EU waters are required to submit data on their emissions The accredited bodies, announced this week, will verify data provided by companies operating in EU waters as from January 1 2018.
According to UKAS further applicant certification bodies are in the process of achieving accreditation and will be announced soon.
UK Chamber Policy Manager, Anna Ziou, said: “The UK Chamber welcomes the announcement of the first six verification companies accredited by UKAS, which brings the total number of accredited bodies for EU MRV purposes to eight. However, we believe that more companies need to be accredited in order to meet the demand for the assessment of the monitoring plan. Unfortunately, the guidelines that will provide valuable advice on the implementation of the regulation are not expected to be finalised before May.
“Practically, that means the industry will be required to comply with a very complex and burdensome regulation in a very short time, so the number of available verifiers will be crucial. We strongly encourage the European Commission, and the accreditation bodies, to work closely with the industry to ensure sufficient number of verification companies are available as soon as possible.”
