Emissions- unilateral monitoring on the horizon - Tanker Operator

Posted - October 11, 2013 -  Tanker Operator

The European Union (EU) is still proposing to push forward its initiative to monitor C02 emissions from shipping.

According to an EU paper released back in June, shipping remains the only transport mode not included in the EU’s GHG emissions reduction commitment and currently accounts for 4% of the European total.
Globally, the maritime transport sector accounts for 3% of emissions, but this is expected to rise to 5% by 2050, despite the introduction of mandatory and operational efficiency measures, such as the lower ECA permissible sulphur content levels from January, 2015.
Long term, the EU aims to reduce vessel C02 emissions by up to 75%. In other words, switching over to the use of low sulphur fuels within the European ECAs may not be enough to satisfy EU bureaucrats, who appear to be looking at a tougher policy, Gibson Research said in its weekly report.
The EU wants a global approach taken to reduce shipping emissions and proposes that from 2018, large ships using EU ports should report their verified emissions.
In the past, the EU has acted independently from the IMO when it felt that international legislation has been too slow in coming.
So who will be affected? The proposal is for EU regulation on monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of C02 emissions from all ships larger than 5,000 gt on voyages into, out of and between EU ports.
This will be required per-voyage, as well as yearly monitoring of EU emissions. Companies will also have to provide an emissions report for their previous year’s activity. The MRV will be in addition to the adoption of the technical efficiency measures introduced by the IMO in 2011, which were designed to deliver significant emission reductions.
The US authorities also appear to be taking an increasingly stricter position with respect to their own emissions control area, Gibson warned.
Recent orders placed at the NASSCO shipyard for Jones Act tonnage has included two containerships and four MRs (with four options), which will be dual fuelled (oil & LNG).
With the first delivery of these just two years away, the owners appear confident that access to LNG fuel will not be a problem in the US, even more so with the forecast growth of domestic gas production.
The debate on alternative fuels is heating up. As these environmental deadlines approach, owners have some tough decisions to make in increasingly harsh shipping markets. The only certainty is that the emission legislation will become increasingly tougher and even more costly to implement, Gibson concluded.

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