The MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) regulation requires ships with 5,000 GT or greater to monitor, report, and verify their CO₂ emissions on an annual basis. The MRV covers ships that are transporting cargo or passengers for commercial purposes and that call at any EU port.

The MRV came into force on 1 July 2015 and becomes fully effective on 1 January 2018.  Prior to this shipping companies need to prepare a monitoring plan for each ship covered by the MRV and submit that to an accredited verification body by 31 August 2017.  From 1 January 2018 monitoring must commence to enable CO₂ reporting per voyage, with verified annual emission reports to be submitted to the European Commission by 30 April 2019.

In addition to providing formal approval of the Monitoring and Reporting Plan (MRP) and verification of the annual emissions report, Lucideon can also provide pre-verification (gap analysis) of the MRP.

Following verification, a document of compliance is issued by the verifier and this document should be kept on board ships to demonstrate compliance with the obligations for monitoring, reporting and verification. The document of compliance is valid for a period of 18 months after the end of the reporting period. Each Member State shall ensure that any inspection of a ship in a port under its jurisdiction is carried out in accordance with Directive 2009/16/EC which includes checking that a valid document of compliance is carried on board.

Lucideon was the first verification body to receive accreditation from UKAS for EU ETS and has verified more than $8 billion of CO₂ to date.  The team of expert verifiers, that includes ship chief engineers and maritime energy experts as well as ex-regulators, has considerable experience of approving monitoring plans under the EU ETS as well as with Marine Equipment Directives (2014/90/EU and 96/98/EC).