Breakthrough in clean ocean shipping in line with ECN recommendations

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) is delighted with the agreement in principle that the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) recently reached concerning the reduction of air pollution caused by shipping. This is a spectacular step towards a better environment.

Air pollution caused by shipping is a major global problem that contributes to the premature death of tens of thousands of people every year. On 4 April, IMO (the UN organisation for maritime shipping) took a unanimous decision regarding the use of cleaner fuel for ocean shipping. In 2020, all sea-going vessels must use fuel with a maximum sulphur level of 0.5%. At present, this is 4.5%. To achieve this, refineries will have to make total global investments of approximately 50 billion euros. For an area such as the Rijnmond (a major industrial area in the Netherlands), refineries will have to be expanded by roughly 20% or replaced. The final decision is expected to be taken in October 2008.

Prior to the decision, the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management commissioned ECN to write a recommendation report focusing on, amongst other things, the duration and costs required by refineries to switch to the production of cleaner fuel. These recommendations are in line with the IMO agreement. Other similar studies confirm ECN’s calculations. Refineries will now have until 2020 to implement the necessary modifications instead of the tight deadline of 2015 mentioned in earlier proposals.

Cleaner air
ECN indicated in the recommendation process that further measures in densely populated costal areas will yield the greatest environmental benefits. These measures can already be implemented sooner because it only concerns a small part of total fuel consumption. The North Sea and Baltic Sea are already areas that require 40% cleaner fuels to be used. IMO has now also adopted this point. In 2015, sea-going vessels in these areas will emit up to 60% less heavy metals, particulates and sulphur than they currently do. This will result in measurably cleaner air in the Netherlands by 2015.

Greatest polluter worldwide
Pieter Kroon, an ECN employee from the Policy Studies unit and co-author of the report talks about ‘a historical breakthrough’. Pieter: ‘IMO is assuming a pioneering responsibility, as this demands considerable investments. Maritime shipping is the greatest polluter worldwide. A major step is being taken in the short term to bring an end to that. It is a spectacular step towards a better environment and is similar – for this sector – to the Kyoto Protocol and the Montreal Protocol.’

 

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