Shipowners are being warned they need to get a move on to meet the deadline for the European Union (EU)'s monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) emissions monitoring scheme.
Plans must be presented for approval by the end of the month and owners must be ready to start recording fuel use and carbon emissions in January.
With the deadline looming, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has issued guidance to help its members comply with the regulation and to increase awareness of the scheme's requirements.
The ICS said: “The most urgent deadline is 31 August. All members are advised to bring to the attention of member companies the importance of submitting their monitoring plans to accredited verifiers by this date for their ships, which are, or will be, covered by the scope of the MRV regulation as detailed.”
The EU scheme brings complications for owners as it differs considerably from the International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s data collection scheme (DCS), which is also an attempt to monitor ship emissions.
The DCS requires monitoring on a global rather than regional level and will be introduced later than the EU scheme.
The ICS guidance outlines the key areas of divergence between the two schemes.
The ICS says efforts to harmonise the schemes are ongoing but owners will have to operate both for the time being.
“The European Commission is reviewing the MRV regulation with a view to considering potential alignment with the IMO DCS. However, it is uncertain what the outcome will be and the two schemes will exist with very different requirements for at least some time,” it said.
