The European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted overwhelmingly today to support and strengthen some elements of the Commission’s proposal for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of shipping emissions. Transport & Environment welcomes the inclusion of the air pollutant NOx in the monitoring measure. However, MEPs rejected the chance to use ship efficiency as an accurate measure of emissions, which is the key to improving the sector’s environmental performance.
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Aoife O’Leary, T&E policy officer for shipping, said “The Parliament’s lead committee have seized the important opportunity to include harmful NOx emissions in its monitoring law. It’s clever and cost-effective to monitor all air pollutants, including SOx and NOx, at once. Member States must further strengthen the proposal to ensure that rising levels of harmful pollutants can be more effectively controlled.”
“Reporting on cargo weight and distance sailed allows ship-owners to accurately measure, and then of course improve, their efficiency and emissions output. With international shipping moving in this direction, the Parliament’s decision is short sighted. Member States must ensure that Europe adopts this standard to be on the same page as the IMO,” O’Leary concluded.
Notes to editors:
[1] CEEH (2011): Assessment of health-cost externalities of air pollution at the national level using the EVA model system). By J. Brandt et al. CEEH Scientific Report No 3. Centre for Energy, Environment and health: www.ceeh.dk.
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