The EU ETS is being extended to cover, from 1st January 2024 carbon dioxide emissions, and from 1st January 2026 also methane and nitrous oxide emissions, from maritime transport activities. A consolidated version of the EU ETS Directive, inclusive of the provisions for maritime activities, may be accessed here
Obligations
A shipping company shall be required to monitor and report emissions and other relevant parameters, and submit aggregated emissions data at company level, to the national Competent Authority, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2015/757 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 on the monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport (consolidated version of MRV-Shipping Regulation).
The shipping company shall be liable to surrender allowances, as of 2025 in respect of 2024 emissions, in accordance with the phasing-in of surrender requirements, thus:
(a) by 2025, in respect of 40% of verified emissions reported for 2024 that would be subject to surrender requirements;
(b) by 2026, in respect of 70% of verified emissions reported for 2025 that would be subject to surrender requirements; and,
(c) by 2027, in respect of 100% of verified emissions reported for 2026 that would be subject to surrender requirements.
For subsequent years, a shipping company shall continue to surrender allowances in respect of 100% of verified emissions reported for the previous year.
For the purposes of the EU ETS, a shipping company will be attributed to a Member State as its administering authority:
(a) in the case of a shipping company registered in a Member State, the Member State in which the shipping company is registered;
(b) in the case of a shipping company that is not registered in a Member State, the Member State with the greatest estimated number of port calls from voyages performed by that shipping company in the preceding four monitoring years and falling within the EU ETS scope;
(c) in the case of a shipping company that is not registered in a Member State and that did not carry out any voyage falling within the EU ETS scope in the preceding four monitoring years, the Member State where a ship of the shipping company has started or ended its first voyage falling within the EU ETS scope.
The Commission shall be publishing, every two years, and for the first time, by 1 February 2024, a list of shipping companies specifying the administering authority for each shipping company.
Further information
Further information on the inclusion of maritime activities in the EU ETS, and on revisions relating to the monitoring, reporting and verification of GHG emissions from maritime activities, may be found here.
Contacting the competent authority:
You may contact MRA on matters relating to shipping in the EU ETS at: emissions_trading_scheme@mra.org.mt .