Building a Common Foundation for Digital Emissions Data Exchange
The shipping industry is facing a growing number of regional and global environmental reporting requirements. Frameworks such as IMO DCS and CII, EU MRV, EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime, and UK MRV/ETS have increased the need for efficient, consistent, and digital reporting of vessel emissions and fuel consumption data. These diverse requirements create a significant administrative burden for shipowners, operators, verifiers, software providers, and other stakeholders across the maritime value chain.
To address this challenge, BIMCO, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO, IACS (including individual Class representatives) and other industry stakeholders formed the Tripartite Joint Industry Working Group (JIWG) on Harmonising Maritime Emissions Reporting. The group's aim is to simplify emissions reporting through common standards, interoperable data models, and automated digital data exchange.
Tripartite is an industry forum bringing together representatives from shipowners and operators, shipbuilders, and classification societies to address shared technical, safety, environmental and regulatory challenges through coordinated, non binding industry dialogue
What is the JIWG working on?
The JIWG is developing a common framework that supports consistent digital reporting throughout the industry. The work focuses on two complementary initiatives:
Operational Vessel Data (OVD)
OVD provides a standardised structure for exchanging operational vessel and fuel consumption data between ships, shore systems, verifiers, and other stakeholders. It establishes a common format for how data is collected, organised, transmitted, and validated, enabling automated system-to-system information exchange.
The industry has agreed that OVD should evolve under an independent and neutral governance model, ensuring that the standard remains open, transparent, and accessible to all market participants.
Vessel Emission Report (VER)
VER is being developed as a standardised reporting format for commercial emissions reporting. The initiative aims to support reporting needs related to charterparties, voyage emissions, emissions trading systems, FuelEU Maritime calculations, and other market-driven reporting requirements.
Together, OVD and VER seek to reduce duplication, improve data consistency, and support future regulatory and commercial reporting requirements without requiring continuous changes to onboard reporting processes.
Relationship with the IMO Compendium
The IMO Compendium serves as the maritime industry's common data dictionary, defining standardised data elements and terminology. OVD builds upon this foundation by providing a practical implementation framework for digital data exchange. In simple terms, the IMO Compendium defines what information should be reported, while OVD provides a common way to exchange that information electronically.
This alignment helps promote interoperability across systems, organisations, and reporting schemes while supporting future harmonisation efforts within the IMO.
Industry Consultation Findings
To ensure that future emissions reporting standards reflect practical industry needs, BIMCO conducted an industry-wide consultation on behalf of the Tripartite Joint Industry Working Group. More than 20 organisations from across the maritime value chain contributed feedback, including shipowners, managers, charterers, classification societies, software vendors, accredited verifiers, and technology providers.
The consultation confirmed broad support for the development of a harmonised and vendor-neutral framework for maritime emissions reporting. Stakeholders endorsed the Operational Vessel Data (OVD) standard as a practical foundation for data exchange while emphasizing the importance of open governance, voluntary adoption, and industry-wide interoperability.
The full consultation report, together with supporting documents and templates, is available on this page. The findings are being used to guide the future development of OVD governance arrangements and the continued work on the Vessel Emission Report (VER) framework.
Next Steps
The work of the Tripartite Joint Industry Working Group is now focused on establishing an independent governance framework for OVD and advancing the development of standardised emissions reporting formats. The objective is to provide the maritime industry with an open, trusted, and widely accepted framework for exchanging operational and emissions data across regulatory and commercial use cases.
The following material will be added to this page as it becomes available.
If you are a member, make sure you are subscribed to our member newsletter to receive notification of updates.
- OVD specifications and supporting documentation
- VER concept and supporting documentation
- Consultation reports and industry feedback summaries
- Presentations and workshop material
- Governance framework documents
- Templates and implementation guidance.
These resources are intended to support stakeholders involved in maritime emissions reporting, software development, verification services, and regulatory compliance activities.
