Brussels, 13/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Environment Council in Brussels on Friday 13 December welcomed a draft regulation unveiled in July 2013 to introduce a carbon dioxide emissions monitoring, reporting and verification system (MRV) for shipping in the EU, as the first stage in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3%. In their first discussion of the measures, ministers were united in pointing out the need for a global agreement at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Germany, Belgium, Ireland and others said it was important to avoid a repeat of what happened with the EU's carbon trading system (ETS) for aviation, which the EU's international partners are up in arms about. The Polish delegation is the only one to say it disagrees with the Commission's proposals on the grounds that anything to do with emissions has to be dealt with globally.
The regulation would only apply to ships weighing more than 5,000 tonnes sailing through EU waters (not including fishing vessels, in other words) and only to CO2 emissions. This was welcomed, but doubts have been expressed about the requirement to reduce emissions for each type of ship and each type of sailing. Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain want a simplified measure or more detailed analysis in order to cut red tape for ships that are only stopping off in European waters occasionally (for repairs, for example). Stressing the existence of Russian ports in the Baltic, Latvia called for an extra assessment to be made of competition, fearing that countries flying non-EU flags would chose ports not subject to this new system. Estonia and Finland point out that far more fuel is used in the Arctic because of the cold, and emissions also depend on the type of ship. France warned against the danger of loss of competitiveness, particularly for remote regions. The Greek delegation said it was important to have a profitable MRV system and the Greek Presidency would be working towards a global system “in the near future”. Plenty of work remains to be done at the Council of Ministers' environment working group to avoid creating obstacles to competitiveness for shipping, added the Greek environment minister.
The EP's environment committee is due to vote on this question in January, with the plenary vote expected in April 2014. (AN/transl.fl)