Regulating Carbon Dioxide Emission from Maritime Transport

Progression is the key if one wants to mitigate the effects of global warming. This can be reached on a European level through the implementation of the new Regulations 2015/757 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport. This is a first step to include the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the European Union commitments. The said Regulation was adopted by the European Parliament on 28^th April 2015 and it entered into force on 1^st July 2015. In anticipation the said Regulation, the EU’s Commission White Paper entitled ‘Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a Competitive and Resource efficient Transport System’ set the target to reduce carbon dioxide levels by 40% by 2050.

In order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the Regulation established a system to monitor report and verify the levels of emissions from ships arriving at, within or departing from ports under the jurisdiction of a European Member State.  The said Regulation has a restriction to its application, that is; it only applies to ships that are above 5,000 gross tonnes, regardless of their flag or the port where the ships are registered. Moreover, it does not apply to warships, naval auxiliaries, ships not propelled by mechanical means, wooden ships of a primitive build, fish processing ships and government ships that would be used for non-commercial purposes. The monitoring and reporting of the vessels shall be carried out within all ports of European Member States and for any voyages to or from a port of a European Member State. According to the Regulation, companies are requested to put an Accredited Verifier Ship in place with specific monitoring plans regarding the fuel consumption where they also indicate the method adopted for monitoring. This monitoring plan has to be submitted by not later than 31^st August 2017 and it shall contain the identification and the type of ship, the description of the carbon dioxide emission sources on board, the description of the procedures used to monitor the completeness of the voyages and most importantly the plan has to contain a description of the procedures and methodology used for monitoring the fuel consumption of the ship. The said plan has to be checked by the owning company or managing company at least once annually in order to ascertain whether it still reflects the nature of the ship and whether the said monitoring plan can be improved or modified in some way especially when new kinds of fuels are being introduced. The verifier shall go through the monitoring plan and if the latter is not in conformity with the requirements of the Regulation, then the company owning or managing the ship has to revise its monitoring plan and submit a revised version of the plan for another assessment by the verifier.

As from the 1^st of January 2018, companies have to prepare a ‘per-voyage and annual monitoring measures’ with regard to carbon dioxide emissions based on the monitoring plan assessed by the verifier for each ship arriving or departing from a European port and for every voyage to or from a port of a European Member State. In such a case, companies would have to monitor different elements, including date and hour of departure and arrival, amount and emission factor for each type of fuel consumed in total, distance travelled, time spent at sea and cargo carried.

Owning or Managing Companies of ships may be exempt from monitoring all the said elements on a per-voyage basis with regard to a specified ship i.e.: when all of the ship’s voyages during the reporting period either starts from or ends at a port under the jurisdiction of a European Member State and the ship performs more than 300 voyages during the reporting period.

Another important deadline is that regarding the submission of emissions report. As from 2019, every year by the 30^th of April, companies are to submit to Transport Malta and the European Commission the said report concerning the carbon dioxide emissions for each ship that would be under their responsibility.

The Regulation calls for European Member States to set up a system of penalties for failure to comply with the monitoring and reporting obligations set out in the Regulation. If the ship fails to meet the terms prescribed by the Regulation for two or more consecutive reporting periods, then the competent authority of the European Member State of the port of entry has the right to issue an expulsion order with regard to that particular ship. Moreover, all the European Member States are to refuse the entry of the said ship into any of their ports until the relevant owning or managing company of the ship fulfils its monitoring and reporting obligations in accordance with the Regulation.