BIMCO has voiced concerns over the European Commission's proposal for regulating CO2 emissions from ships, which requires reporting of information about cargo that is commercially sensitive.
Informally agreed in November, the EC Regulation on monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) creates a unilateral European MRV system that will become operational as of 2018, applying to ships above 5,000GRT arriving and/or departing from EU ports.
"The system is claimed to be neutral regarding flag and ownership, however BIMCO believes that the EU MRV system will create additional red tape for shipping without any positive impact on the environment and may well negatively affect the prospect of an international agreement on the issue in IMO," said BIMCO.
Apart from reporting data on CO2 emissions and distance sailed, the regulation will require ships to report cargo-related information, which BIMCO believes will create problems related to data reliability, confidentiality, reporting responsibilities and obligations.
"We view the EU MRV Regulation as unhelpful in terms of reaching an international agreement on the crucial issue of CO2 monitoring, said BIMCO's Deputy Secretary General, Lars Robert Pedersen.
"We also find it hard to see how the cargo data required from ships will be of value as it relates to past commercial utilisation of ships and serves no purpose for limiting future CO2 emissions or assessing ships' future performance capabilities."
The agreement on the EU MRV Regulation still needs formal endorsement from the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. This process will not entail further changes to the specifics of the agreement, which is expected to be finalised by January 2015.
