WWL Fleet Ready for EU MRV
Image Courtesy: WWL Wallenius Wilhelmsen group has received class approval for its MRV plans across the company’s fleet.
As explained, Wallenius’ fleet will be compliant when the new regulation takes effect from January 1, 2018.
The Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of CO2 (MRV) regulation is part of EU’s regulatory strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which for shipping are 98% CO2. It requires ship owners and operators to monitor, report and verify CO2 emissions for vessels larger than 5,000 gross tons calling at any EU and EFTA - including Norway and Iceland - port.
To prepare to comply with the EU MRV regulation, the first step was to develop and submit a monitoring plan for each of the group’s ships that fall under the scope of the regulation by August 31, 2017.
The monitoring plans have now been verified by the various classification societies used by the fleet.
“The reduction of CO2 emissions is one of the largest challenges for the shipping industry. Wallenius Wilhelmsen group supports a fact-based approach to further CO2 regulatory development and therefore sees comprehensive data collection and analysis as a logical first step in that process,” Roger Strevens, Head of Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), commented.
Data collection, which starts on January 1, 2018, must be done for every voyage, or voyage leg, where an EU port is involved. That data includes the quantity of each fuel type consumed as well as the amount of cargo work done in ton kilometers. The data is verified by a third-party organization and then aggregated on an annual per vessel basis before being sent to a central database. The aggregated vessel data will be published by the European Commission by June 30, 2019.
A global CO2 Data Collection Scheme (DCS) is also being developed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and is set to start in 2019.
“As a global industry, it is critical to have effective global regulation, therefore WWL strongly supports efforts to bring EU’s MRV into alignment with the DCS of IMO. That effort will help to avoid unnecessary double reporting,” WWL said.
The IMO is currently working on its Initial GHG Strategy, which will be ready by mid-2018. That strategy will set out the general approach to decarbonization in the sector and may include indications of when specific reduction milestones should be met.
