MRV for ships < 5000 GT
Getting MRV-ready for 2025
From 2025 on, general cargo ships with 400 – 5000 gross tonnage will begin to report greenhouse gas emissions as soon as they call at at least one port within the European Union. What has been in place for larger ships for several years now also applies to coasters by 2025.
What is EU MRV?
The EU MRV Regulation sets out rules under which shipping companies report annually the carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions.
Accredited auditors verify the reported emissions from ships calling at EEA ports. EU MRV regulations will also apply to general cargo ships between 400 and 5000 GT as well as offshore ships from 400 GT from January 1, 2025.
What you need to do right now to get MRV-ready for ships < 5000 GT:
1. Find a MRV verifier
Get in contact with the MRV auditor of your choice (the verifier) and sign up. The verifier is responsible for auditing the emissions data of your ships on a yearly basis.
Note that most classes are offering EU MRV auditing. However, you may also decide for a class-independent service provider as long as it is certified for EU MRV auditing.
Have a look at the digital platform of your verifier and find out how easy it is to work with.
2. Have you MRV monitoring plan ready
Write down your MRV monitoring plan (MP) and send it to your verifier for auditing. After verification, the monitoring plan will be uploaded to the Thetis platform in digital format.
You can find more information about the monitoring plan here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32023R2449
3. Get the right software for data collection
Ensure that you have a reliable, proven data collection platform for ship-shore data reporting in place. The software has to be digitally integrated with the platform of your verifier to avoid manual work.
Check out the data quality assurance functions of your software and get familiar with the functionality. Ideally, the software allows to communicate typos and errors with the ship automatically and gives you a fast overview of errors and typos.
Note that Excel is not a choice any more since you have to establish a regular data quality assurance and be able to provide the data to your verifier in a stable, digital format.
4. Allocate resources for quality assurance
Make your decision how you ensure that the reported data are correct. You can either assign the work to an internal person or use the DQ service of an external service provider. Some companies establish an emission manager next to the bunker department.
In any case, expect to require at least 1-2 hours per week and ship for handling emission data validation and data correction in the beginning. Depending on the digital solution of your data collection software, the amount of work can vary.
5. Set up a communication chart
The EU MRV process includes different parties. Apart from the crew on board, the responsible emission manager ashore, the verifier, your IT department and the software provider are the most important contacts.
Write down a list of contacts with names, roles, email addresses and phone numbers and share this list with all involved parties. Include the different tasks and responsibilities so that everybody involved knows exactly who is the right contact person in case.
6. Train your crew how and why they shall report emission data
For sure, reporting creates additional work for the crew. Smaller ships often have more port calls than larger ones, and the reporting effort is correspondingly higher, because consumption and bunker reports are required for each port call.
Many crew members do not see the point in the additional work. Therefore, make sure that your officers understand why it is essential to comply with the EU regulation. Open the training to all your officers since the captains are normally delegating the data reporting work.
7. Get the reporting software rolled out
Make sure that you have the reporting software on board in time. Otherwise, the crew has to enter data from historical port calls. This can be an annoying work that tends to be error-prone.
Get your IT guy involved (if you have one) and check if your IT on board fulfills the technical per-requisites of the software. It is always a good idea to contact the data collection software provider and ask for the installation procedure. If you can, designate a person ashore who is in charge of the installation and update process.
Allow the crew to familiarize with the tool on board. Some solutions can be pretty complex to understand. Check if the provider comes with personnel and email support.
8. Training of your office staff
Now it is time to get your colleagues ashore into the EU MRV process. At least your emission manager (see above) should know the regulations in detail, the deadlines and the contacts to talk to.
Ensure that everybody who is involved in the MRV process has got an account to the relevant software platform.
Ask your software provider for a training session so that your team understands how the software works, how they can use it and how the data correction process is implemented.
9. Establish DQ processes
Now, your crew has started with reporting emission data. Check out the data quality in the DQ modules of your reporting platform ashore and try to reply to errors and typos as soon as possible.
Especially during the first months, the crews have to get used to the additional process and to understand the relevance of accurate data entry.
Ensure that you have all bunker delivery notes (BDNs) digitally in place. Ideally, your software allows to attach BDNs to the port calls.
Have an eye on the port call information, the reported distances and times. Later verification will check this information against AIS, cargo documents and BDNs and revert if there are deviations between the reported emissions and the data from external sources.
10. Be prepared for Thetis
You have to upload the EU MRV data to Thetis by 31 March. Make sure that your data are correct as early as possible. Ideally, the DQ functionality of your reporting platform should show “green” lights only for all voyages at the beginning of October.
Start early and contact your verifier in time to find out if they see any unsolved issues from their side. Some come with software platforms that help you to find issues automatically at a glance.
Your alternative – the EU MRV One-Stop-Shop for ships < 5000 GT
You don’t have time or resources to establish the above steps?
Together with our partner Swiss Climate, we offer you the entire package for data collection, quality assurance and verification:
Your advantage:
- No additional work ashore
- 2-weekly data quality checks by qualified personal
- Proven, turn-key solution
Schedule a meeting now and book your one-stop-shop solution for your fleet today: