Environmentalists call for EU action on ship pollution

Environmentalists call for EU action on ship pollution    The European Federation for Transport and Environment is calling on the European Union to introduce measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants from ships.
   The International Maritime Organization has “failed to deliver on its mandate” in cutting emissions and combating climate change, said Jo'o Vieira, policy officer for shipping at federation. “The EU must now take the lead and deliver policies to cut emissions.”
   T&E calls itself “Europe’s principal environmental organization campaigning on sustainable transport.”
   The 56th session of the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee last week “failed to deliver either a framework for cutting greenhouse gases or an update to weak legislation on other air pollutants from ships,” the group complained.
   “Ships are the second-fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, but are subject to no policy measures in Europe or internationally,” T&E said. “By 2020 emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx) from ships in the EU are set to be greater than from all land-based sources combined.
   “Only aviation emissions are growing at a faster rate, but plans are already on the table at EU level to include emissions from aircraft in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS),” it said.
   But T&E said the European Parliament has adopted a resolution that calls on the European Commission to bring forward proposals to integrate shipping into the EU-ETS. It said the Parliament has also called for:
   * Establishing NOx emissions standards for ships using EU ports.
   * Lowering the maximum permitted sulphur content of marine fuels.
   * Introducing taxes or charges on SO2 and NOx emissions from ships and encouraging the introduction of differentiated port charges favoring low SO2 and NOx-emitting ships.
   T&E said existing Marpol Annex VI regulations from the IMO on NOx and the sulphur content of marine fuels are “effectively meaningless.
   “The NOx standard is obsolete as a result of widely available technology improvements. And the maximum sulphur content of fuel, at 4.5 percent, is much greater than the existing global average of 2.7 percent. However, the current global average figure is still dangerously high and 2,700 times greater than the level permitted in road transport fuel as of 2009,” it said.
   T&E added that Marpol Annex VI does not address either greenhouse gas emissions nor fine particles which that a number of serious health impacts.