Monitoring the Carbon Footprint of Dry Bulk Shipping in the EU: An Early Assessment of the MRV Regulation

George Panagakos, Thiago de Sousa Pessôa, Nick Dessypris, Michael Bruhn Barfod and Harilaos N. Psaraftis
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George Panagakos: Department of Technology, Management and Economy, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
Thiago de Sousa Pessôa: Department of Technology, Management and Economy, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
Nick Dessypris: Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Michael Bruhn Barfod: Department of Technology, Management and Economy, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
Harilaos N. Psaraftis: Department of Technology, Management and Economy, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: Aiming at reducing CO 2 emissions from shipping at the EU level, a system for monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of CO 2 emissions of ships was introduced in 2015 with the so-called ‘MRV Regulation’. Its stated objective was to produce accurate information on the CO 2 emissions of large ships using EU ports and to incentivize energy efficiency improvements by making this information publicly available. On 1 July 2019, the European Commission published the relevant data for 10,880 ships that called at EU ports within 2018. This milestone marked the completion of the first annual cycle of the regulation’s implementation, enabling an early assessment of its effectiveness. To investigate the value of the published data, information was collected on all voyages performed within 2018 by a fleet of 1041 dry bulk carriers operated by a leading Danish shipping company. The MRV indicators were then recalculated on a global basis. The results indicate that the geographic coverage restrictions of the MRV Regulation introduce a significant bias, thus prohibiting their intended use. Nevertheless, the MRV Regulation has played a role in prompting the IMO to adopt its Data Collection System that monitors ship carbon emissions albeit on a global basis.

Keywords: shipping; dry bulk carriers; energy efficiency; carbon emissions; monitoring emissions; indicators; MRV Regulation; EU policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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