‘Maritime regulations crossroads: bridging IMO’s CII and EU ETS through the EUA efficiency indicator’

In order to reduce shipping Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, both global and regional regulatory frameworks have been developed by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the European Union (EU) respectively. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship among these regulatory frameworks within the shipping industry. In order to facilitate this comparison, the IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) and the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) are analyzed in order to identify similarities, differences and examine if a correlation between the two regulations exists. Voyage data from selected vessels were gathered and analyzed to provide the CII rating of the vessels and EU ETS costs associated with the respective voyages. Building on these cases’ results, a new indicator – the EUA Efficiency Indicator − was developed to estimate the accumulative result of the co-existence of the two regulations and determine the prevailing combined mechanism of global and regional decarbonization initiatives.