Yachts to Be Exempt from EU's Carbon Pricing Plan

This is the relevant document, published in July 2021 like the article refers to: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/fueleu_maritim...

> In order to limit the administrative burden, in particular that of smaller operators, this Regulation should not apply to wooden ships of a primitive build and ships not propelled by mechanical means and focus on ships with a gross tonnage above 5 000. Even though these latter ships represent only approximately 55% of all ships calling at ports under the Regulation (EU) 2015/757 of the European Parliament and of the Council, they are responsible for 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the maritime sector.

> This approach strikes a balance between environmental effectiveness and the administrative burden. Broadening the scope to ships above 400 GT (which is the minimum size applicable in international conventions) would bring minimal benefits in terms of emission reductions but would significantly increase the number of regulated entities.

There's no explicit mention of yachts, though I'm not qualified to judge how they might be referred to more formally. There are some explicit exclusions:

> This Regulation does not apply to warships, naval auxiliaries, fish-catching or fish-processing ships, wooden ships of a primitive build, ships not propelled by mechanical means, or government ships used for non-commercial purposes

The Transport & Environment report linked in the article seems to disagree with the 5,000 gross tonnage limit:

> As a bare minimum, policy-makers should reduce the threshold to 400 GT and include offshore vessels in the shipping proposals

They also say that there are 26 yachts over 5,000 GT that are exempted (compared to 1,459 yachts under 5,000 GT). If that's the case that would mean there's an exclusion applied to "yachts" other than the gross tonnage one.

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The MRV (monitoring, reporting, and verification) regulation from 2015 mentions this: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2015/757/oj

> However, since this Regulation focuses on maritime transport, it should not establish monitoring, reporting and verification requirements for ship movements and activities not serving the purpose of transporting cargo or passengers for commercial purposes, such as dredging, ice-breaking, pipe laying or offshore installation activities.

So maybe that will apply for the ETS (Emission Trading System) changes as well.

or just paperwork fraud.

There's simply no good reason for yachts and private jets to be exempt.