E.U. Publishes MRV Frequently Asked Questions
The European Commission has published its online Frequently Asked Questions on the implementation of the MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) Shipping Regulation.
The regulation requires ships carrying out maritime transport activities to or from European ports to monitor and report information including verified data on their CO2 emissions from January 1, 2018.
The MRV Shipping Regulation applies to ships above 5,000 GT, regardless of their flag. A limited number of categories of ships are excluded, including: warships, naval auxiliaries, fish-catching or fish-processing ships, ships not propelled by mechanical means and government ships used for non-commercial purposes.
Ballast voyages, from the last port of call where the ships have discharged cargo or disembarked passengers to the next port of call where cargo is loaded or passengers embark are included.
However, ships' movements that do not serve the purpose of transporting cargo or passengers for commercial purposes are not subject to the monitoring, reporting and verification requirements, for example:
• prospection and extraction of material from the seabed or subsoil,
• ice-breaking activities,
• carrying, laying, and repairing of cables/pipelines for underwater for telecommunications, electric power transmission, or other purposes;
• providing support to offshore installations, such as drilling rigs, natural gas and oil platforms, offshore wind farms
• installation and decommissioning of subsea structures and offshore installations.
Port stops are not included if, for instance, a ship stops in a port for the sole purpose of refuelling, obtaining supplies, relieving the crew, going into dry-dock or making repairs to the ship. Also, stops in ports due to a ship needing assistance or taking shelter from adverse weather are not considered ports of call for MRV requirements.
Ship to ship transfers carried out outside ports are covered by the Regulation. A weighted average for cargo carried should be calculated and applied to the entire voyage.
For a voyage to be covered by the MRV Regulation at least one of the ports of call shall be E.U. territory.
Member States' territories which are not E.U. territories are:
• Greenland and the Faroe Islands
• French Polynesia, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna
• Aruba, Bonaire, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Curaçao, Sint Maarten
• Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caico Islands, Akrotiri and Dhekelia
In practical terms, it implies that voyages between a port of call in one of these territories and a European port are to be monitored and reported.
The Frequently Asked Questions are available here.