Economic and operational impact of the MRV implementation on maritime transport processes

The European Union (EU) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) strongly feel the need for initiating measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping lines regionally and globally using a package of tools called Green Shipping Practices (GSP). The GSP includes the use of global market-based mechanisms (MBMs), adoption of the energy efficiency design index (EEDI), establishing compulsory energy efficiency standards for all new ships, and the ship energy efficiency management plan (SEEMP) recommended as a new management tool for ship owners. Furthermore, the European Commission (EC) has proposed that owners of large ships using EU ports should report their verified emissions (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions (MRV)) from 2018. In addition, IMO has introduced collection and reporting of ship fuel consumption data (SFCD) under the IMO SFCD scheme based on similar conditions, but related to global shipping. By providing a holistic analysis of the above-mentioned tools with a special focus on MRV and SFCD, this paper presents their economical and operational implications on the maritime transport processes. The working hypothesis that there is a correlation between the introduction of MRV and SFCD tools and reduction of maritime transport anthropopresure has been proved.