Regional pollution controls will harm shipping

There has been a new warning of the harm regional pollution control regulations could do to international shipping. “Only global regulations should be pursued in all aspects of shipping, including on matters related to atmospheric pollution,” Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) told a meeting in London this week. “The establishment of special regional measures, such as the Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs), should be decided only on the basis of well documented compelling needs.”

Mitropoulos was speaking this week at the opening session of an IMO sub-committee considering shipping?s’ response to concern about ship generated pollution. He said that in some parts of the world legislators were targeting shipping as an activity that needed “special attention”. He went on: “This is worrying since any attempt to establish regional emission limits would harm the efficiency of international shipping, which [….] cannot operate in a patchwork of differing regulations.”

But Mitropoulos said the shipping industry should not be left behind in the battle against pollution. “Society considers it imperative to find sustainable and lasting solutions to redress the negative impact of human activity on the environment,” he said; the maritime sector had to show it cared and was “at the forefront” of the challenge. “We should, therefore, redouble our efforts to stem the effects of ship emissions on air quality anywhere in the world.”

The IMO’s Sub-Committee on Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG) is looking at proposals to update MARPOL Annex VI, the IMO protocol dealing with air pollution from ships. Proposals include INTERTANKO’s (the independent taker owners’ association) call for a switch from residual bunker fuel to distillate product. The committee will also be looking at the impact and scope of SECAs. So far, only one SECA is operational, in the Baltic, but another is due to come into force in the North Sea this year.