ATTN: ALL FULL MEMBERS
Dear Members,
Reference to the EU Commission consultation, regarding the rules for the entity responsible to surrender the EU ETS allowances and following our circular [ref. 0908-F> EU ETS delegated acts: new consultation to define the entity responsible to surrender the EU ETS allowances and the administering authority], members were invited to send their feedback.
The following feedback was received by one member:
[Q]
“We are committed to the protection of the environment and welcome the clarifications, which in our opinion allow for a practical and most importantly litigation free roll-out of EU ETS into the maritime space.
We believe the original ruleset prioritized practicability of enforcement over legality of enforcement in the important question of who the responsible party is. We are certain this would have made litigation from the Shipmanagement Community inevitable.
Avoiding litigation over EU ETS is of interest to the Shipping Community as a whole, as the uncertainty that comes with drawn out court process would have been unbearable in light of the significant amounts involved with EU ETS.
We also believe the original ruleset would have led to shipmanagers being in their rights to collect carbon certificates in advance, like OPEX, or ask for expensive securitization while the default risk premium would have added substantial amounts to the management fees – all to the avoidable cash flow detriment of the Shipowners.
As it stands, we welcome the clarifications as they address both the above points in a practical and reasonable manner.”
[U/Q]
Kind regards
Emmanuel Vergetis
Regional Representative
Athens- Greece
