08:55 Nus Ghani (Conservative)

That the Committee has considered the draft Merchant Shipping (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Carbon Dioxide Emissions) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. We are debating regulations that will amend EU regulation 2015/757 on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport. The effective monitoring and reporting of carbon dioxide is an important step on the road to achieving a more environmentally sustainable shipping sector. We expect that the emissions data gathered will help the international community to develop more effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships. The EU regulation established rules for monitoring, reporting and verifying CO 2 emissions from ships above 5,000 tonnes that make voyages that start or finish in a port in an EU member state. The EU regulation has direct effect in UK law.

Shipping companies have already prepared monitoring plans and have been collecting data since 1 January 2018. Ships within scope are required to carry a valid document of compliance from 30 June 2019. The EU regulation applies only to ships visiting ports that are under the jurisdiction of an EU member state. It would therefore cease to have effect when the UK leaves the European Union. The changes made in the regulations are therefore necessary to ensure that the monitoring, reporting and verification requirements of the EU regulation continue to apply to ships serving UK ports. If the UK failed to correct the EU regulation, ships that call at EU ports would still need to report under the EU system. However, those trading between the UK and non-EU ports would not need to report. That would create an uneven playing field between companies, and the evidence on greenhouse gas emissions would be weakened.

The UK is a strong supporter of global action to tackle climate change. In April this year, we helped lead the high ambition coalition to secure agreement at the International Maritime Organisation on an initial strategy on greenhouse gas emissions. That includes an historic first emission reduction target for ships of at least 50% by 2050, which is an important step forward in tackling emissions from international shipping—the last major sector not to have an emissions reduction plan. The International Maritime Organisation has also produced its own system for monitoring CO 2 emissions from ships. Its data collection system has a similar objective to the EU MRV regime, but will be effective from 1 January 2019, a year later than the European system. Robust information on emissions from ships is important when taking action to reduce such emissions, and that is what the EU regulation aims to provide. If we did not ensure that the regulation continues to have effect, we would be weakening the evidence base on which the development of effective and appropriate measures depends.

As well as amending the EU regulation, the instrument makes a number of other changes, mainly technical and operational in nature, to ensure that the system continues to work. Those changes are to Commission implementing regulation 2016/1927 on templates for monitoring plans, emissions reports and documents of compliance, and the Merchant Shipping (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Carbon Dioxide Emissions) and the Port State Control (Amendment) Regulations 2017. The latter regulations provide an enforcement mechanism for the EU regulation in the United Kingdom.

The regulations before the Committee are intended to ensure that all ships visiting UK ports are subject to the same reporting requirements and that the UK continues to play its part in international action on greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. They are fully supported by the Government, and I commend them to the Committee.

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09:00 Karl Turner (Labour)

Secondly, in reference to paragraph 3 of article 22 of EU regulation 2016/1927, the Government propose to omit the words following “Regulation”. That could undermine the subsequent agreements at the IMO about the targets for reductions in greenhouse gas and CO 2 emissions from shipping. In April, the IMO agreed an initial strategy for carbon reductions from shipping by 2050. That includes a target for the shipping industry to reduce total annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50%, compared with 2008 levels, by 2050. This amendment appears to undermine the monitoring, reporting and verification regime that the UK will have in place to oversee the industry’s progress in meeting future internationally agreed greenhouse gas and CO 2 reduction targets. Can the Minister provide clarification on that in due course?

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