Refers to: Ship Owners / Managers / Operators of CI flagged vessels, PHRS Surveyors / Representatives     

Action Date: 01 Jan. 2021

The transition period following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) ends on 31 December 2020.

The purpose of subject newsletter is to inform all interested parties that from 1 January 2021, the UK will be treated by EU law as a third country (i.e. not an EU Member State). This means Regulation (EU) 2015/757 on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from Maritime Transport will no longer apply to the UK.

Regulation (EU) 2015/757 requires shipowners to record CO2 emissions of all ships over 5,000 GT during their voyages from their last port of call to an EU port and from an EU port to their next port of call, as well as within EU ports.

Consequences of UK withdrawal

Based on the European Commission (EC) notice to stakeholders on the withdrawal of the UK and EU rules on the monitoring and verification of CO2 emissions from maritime transport, attached, shipowners should be aware that the following will no longer fall under the monitoring and reporting requirements of Regulation (EU) 2015/757:

•           CO2 emissions of ships within ports under the jurisdiction of the UK; or

•           CO2 emissions from voyages from a port of the UK to the port of another third country, and vice-versa.

CO2 emissions records verification

Shipowners should note that CO2 emissions records collected during 2020 will continue to be verified as they have been previously, with emissions within UK ports and emissions from voyages between the UK and other third countries included in the 2020 record-keeping requirements.

UK MRV Scheme

Likely UK will be moving to its own Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) scheme under domestic legislation following the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020, and will be putting in place transitional arrangements for vessels calling at the UK in 2021. This UK transitional approach is currently being finalised.

Maritime Cook Islands will notify in due course all interested parties of any further development on the matter.

The Maritime Circular 244/2020 can be found here, in full detail.

Do not hesitate to contact us for more information you may need on the above.

January 7th, 2021 - PHRS Head Office