Verifavia helps owners address MRV readiness

From 1 January 2018 owners will need to monitor, report and verify (MRV) fuel consumption and emissions on all journeys to or from EU ports by vessels of 5,000gt or more. The pre-verification analysis is intended to identify compliance and system design issues with regard to the new regulation.

Julien Dufour, CEO, of Verifavia, commented: “We are committed to sharing information and partnering with ship owners, operators and managers to help them navigate MRV compliance efficiently and effectively. At present, we are providing pre-verification gap analysis to support shipping companies in becoming MRV ready.”

As part of the audit, Verifavia Shipping assesses the existing data accounting procedures and systems against the requirements of the Shipping MRV Regulation to identify any potential issues and non-compliance. Verifavia Shipping also reviews each company’s voyages, fuel and cargo data collection, and transmission and transformation procedures, and performs preliminary analysis of carbon emissions and activity data.

The shipping company’s operational documentation is also reviewed to determine if it contains sufficient details for the implementation of the allowed fuel consumption monitoring methods.

Panos Deligiannis, technical manager, NEDA Maritime Agency, explained: “We believe that it is time for the industry to accept that and take proactive measures to understand how we meet the requirements. With Verifavia Shipping, we have engaged with an experienced, independent verifier who is able to accurately identify any gaps in our ability to achieve compliance as we proactively analyse our process and procedures ahead of time.”

Poul Woodall, director, environment and sustainability, DFDS Seaways, added: “Our compliance review has been based on interviews, document review, observation of systems and processes, and corroboration of information. The process has required very little investment of our time and resource, but now provides us with the reassurance that we are on track to meet MRV compliance.”

Verifavia was invited to join the European Commission’s Shipping MRV subgroup of experts on verification and accreditation. The objectives of the subgroup are to discuss key technical details regarding verification and accreditation of verifiers, and to feed into the Commission’s work for the preparation of the delegated and implementing acts pursuant to the regulation.

The accreditation process is not yet open to potential verifiers of maritime transport. Verifavia has been accredited for the aviation sector since 2010 and will apply to UKAS for extended accreditation as soon as the process has been finalised.