This came into force on 1 July 2015. By 31 August 2017, owners, managers and operators of ships (“companies”) will have to submit to third-party independent verifiers a monitoring plan indicating the method chosen to monitor and report on shipping emissions and other climate relevant information for each of their ships above 5,000 gross tonnage (GT). From 1 January 2018, companies will be required to monitor emissions for each ship on a per-voyage basis and annually on an aggregate basis. From 2019, an independently verified emission report concerning the emissions and other relevant information (such as distance travelled, time of journey, type of fuel used and cargo carried) during the annual reporting period for each ship under their responsibility will have to be submitted to the European Commission by 30 April each year. From 30 June 2019, ships arriving at or departing from an EU port will need to carry on board a document certifying the ship’s compliance with the monitoring and reporting obligations for the 2018 period, which will be subject to inspection by port state authorities.