Maritime
ICS: EU Must Align Shipping CO2 Rules
With International Community
T
he member national shipowners’
associations of the International
Chamber of Shipping (ICS) have agreed
to commence a co-ordinated campaign
aimed at European Union (EU)
institutions, including Member States,
Parliament and the European Commission.
The goal is to persuade the EU of the vital
necessity of aligning its unilateral regulation on
the monitoring of shipping’s CO2 emissions with
the mandatory worldwide CO2 reporting regime
that has been agreed by the UN International
Maritime Organization (IMO).
In addition to working closely with the European
Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), ICS
says it intends to enlist the support of non-EU
governments including the United States, China
and other Asian nations.
Speaking after the ICS AGM in Tokyo last week,
the (newly elected) ICS Chairman, Esben Poulsson,
explained:
“Shipping is a global industry requiring global
rules, in order to have a truly level playing field –
otherwise we have chaos. ICS members greatly
welcome the IMO CO2 reporting regime that
was unanimously agreed by all IMO Member
States in April, as a precursor to further measures
that will hopefully deliver a serious contribution
from shipping towards reducing the world’s CO2
emissions.”
Mr Poulsson continued:
“While ICS fully supports the mandatory
IMO data collection mechanism, many non-EU
governments initially had some reservations which
were only overcome by the industry arguing that
the alternative to IMO making progress would be
“The international shipping sector has cut its total CO2 emissions
by around 10 per cent since 2007, despite increased maritime trade.
With oil prices having risen some 80% since January, this reinforces
how it is truly in every shipowner’s interest to do everything possible
to further reduce fuel consumption and thus cut CO2.
a unilateral regional regime being imposed by
the EU. The EU needs to live up to its side of the
bargain and align its regime with the IMO system
that’s now been agreed by the entire international
community.”
The EU Regulation on the Monitoring, Reporting
and Verification (MRV) of ships’ CO2 emissions was
adopted in 2015 and will be fully implemented in
three years’ time. But all ships trading to Europe,
including non-EU flag ships, will be legally
required to comply with some of its provisions by
as early as 2017.
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Significantly, however, the EU Regulation
contains a provision to the effect that the
European Commission can propose adjustments to
ensure alignment with any similar regime adopted
by IMO.
Mr Poulsson added:
“It is vital that the Commission now commits
to the task of modifying its regime to make it
compatible with the global system which is about
to be adopted by IMO. Quite frankly, the regional
verification mechanism being developed by the
EU will not be compatible with the way in which