US report highlights harmful impact of emissions

The Environmental Defense Fund has released a new report on air pollution from large ocean-going ships. Entitled “Floating Smokestacks: A Call for Action to Clean Up Shipping Pollution,” the report analyses the latest available data from the U.S. EPA and finds that large ocean-going ships in the United States emitted approximately 54,000 tons of particulate matter, equivalent to the emissions from about 117 coal-fired power plants, 745,000 tons of NOx, equivalent to the NOx emissions from 94 coal-fired power plants and nearly 40% of all sulphur dioxide emitted by the transportation sector.

The EDF report coincides with the October 6-10 meeting of IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) that is expected to adopt significant amendments to the MARPOL Annex VI regulations to reduce harmful emissions from ships. EDF says it “respectfully recommends IMO adoption” of the standards set in the amendments.

The new standards will provide for Emission Control Areas, established by IMO, to protect areas particularly sensitive to shipping emissions. In order to protect communities and ecosystems in America, EDF says that the EPA should apply to IMO “to establish an Emission Control Area for the entire coastline of the U.S. The ECA must include rigorous SO2, NOx and PM standards and extend at least 200 nautical miles off the coast, the same distance as the US economic zone, in order to be fully protective. Further, the United States should coordinate its efforts with the governments of Canada and Mexico to establish a North American ECA as many of their coastlines are impacted by ships travelling to and from Canadian and Mexican ports and many ships travel on routes that take them to ports in both countries as they unload their cargo from foreign destinations.”