THE International Maritime Organization has agreed on standardised emissions reporting data that satisfy current emissions regulations, such as FuelEU Maritime, as well as potential future regulations.

The IMO added standardised emissions reporting data fields to its Compendium on Facilitation and Electronic Business, following the 49th meeting of its Facilitation Committee.

The compendium standardises the data that ports, shipping companies and other stakeholders in the industry use on a daily basis to make trade more efficient.

The move is the result of a 12-month long project from the Smart Maritime Council (which includes ABS, DNV, ClassNK, Lloyd’s Register and Bureau Veritas), working with the International Association of Classification Societies and BIMCO.

Smart Maritime Council chairman Rob O’Dwyer said the introduction of these new emissions data standards was “a huge opportunity” for shipping to streamline the collection and exchange of vessel data required for mandatory reporting.

With class societies acting as accredited verifiers for emissions data, the standardised list satisfies the data requirements of all of the class societies and can be applied “in almost any relevant maritime emission reporting process”.

Current regulations, such as FuelEU Maritime and the carbon intensity indicator, are satisfied by the new data fields — but crucially, they will also satisfy “future emissions regulations”, the Smart Maritime Council said.

BIMCO chief naval architect Jeppe Juhl said harmonisation of data collection processes would be crucial if shipping is to achieve its net zero target by 2050.

“This approach not only streamlines our workflows but also enhances the precision and efficiency of ships’ emissions reporting,” he said.

“By achieving this harmonisation, we will facilitate more effective information exchange and can utilise the IMO Compendium as a tool to promote co-operation and trust in the data reported.”