Verifavia, a leading emissions verification company for the transport sector (aviation and shipping), has urged ship owners and operators to submit their data collection plans to verifiers by the recommended IMO deadline of September 1.
 
The IMO Data Collection System (IMO DCS) which came into force on March 1, requires ships of 5,000 gross tonnage or above to collect and report data on fuel consumption, distance sailed, and hours underway to an IMO database from 2019, said a statement from the company.
 
During the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee’s (MEPC) recent 72nd session, which took place in April in London, UK, the committee agreed that shipping companies must be encouraged to submit the SEEMP Part II to their respective Flag Administration or duly authorised organisation by September 1, to ensure timely verification, it said.
 
The committee also approved a sample format for the Confirmation of Compliance that certifies that the ship has a Data Collection Plan (DCP) in place within the SEEMP Part II, which complies with the IMO requirements. This should enable easy and efficient compliance with the regulation, it added.
 
Julien Dufour, chief executive officer, Verifavia Shipping, said: “We’re encouraging ship owners and operators to submit their DCPs against the IMO’s recommended deadline to ensure timely verification.”

“As the IMO DCS largely flows from the EU MRV regulation, the reality is that the process for compliance should be relatively easy and straightforward. If shipowners comply with EU MRV, they are also likely to comply with the IMO DCS,” he said.

Aiming to eliminate unhelpful misunderstandings currently hindering compliance, Dufour expands: “There continues to be a common and unhelpful misconception that data must be submitted to the verifier in a certain format, or that data should be generated from a verifier’s software, which goes beyond regulatory requirements. This is placing an unnecessary burden on shipowners and operators. If the content submitted to the verifier fulfils the requirements, the format of the data is largely irrelevant.”

With authorisation or strategic cooperation agreements in place with the Panama Maritime Authority, the Liberia Maritime Authority, the Antigua & Barbuda Department of Marine Services and Merchant Shipping (ADOMS), the Palau International Ship Registry (PISC), the Vanuatu Maritime Services, and the Commonwealth of Dominica International Maritime Registry, Verifavia Shipping considers itself uniquely qualified to support ship owners and operators in navigating the requirements and challenges of environmental regulations such as the EU MRV and IMO DCS.

According to Verifavia, the EU MRV and IMO DCS regulations which are now both in force are relatively straightforward and the industry is overcomplicating its response to meeting these requirements.

The EU MRV system was designed to ignite the building of an international system and the IMO DCS flows directly from it. The EU MRV has 37 items on its template of requirements, while the IMO DCS template has only 9 items. Despite some minor differences between the two, the same methodologies are applicable for both regulations.
 
As the world’s first independent verifier to provide both IMO DCS and EU MRV verification services, Verifavia continues to leverage its existing in-depth knowledge, expertise, and understanding of these environmental regulations to offer ship owners and operators a streamlined, flexible, and cost-effective verification process, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service