Requiring ships to slow down is an environmentally beneficial option that is both legal and does not damage ships. These were just some of the findings to emerge from a seminar earlier this month organised by T&E and another NGO, Seas at Risk.
Opinion
By Kerstin Meyer - T&E senior campaigner
It seemed the wrong way round when the Commission came under heavy lobby-fire earlier this year over the issue of new sulphur limits for marine fuel. Typically when it comes to international areas like shipping, industry lobbyists always call for an international agreement instead of European legislation. Since these international bodies tend to work extremely slowly that usually means nothing really happens for the next 10 or 20 years, but in this case that was not true. In 2008 the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) agreed some fairly substantial air pollution rules. And now the shipping industry is calling on European policy-makers to ignore the agreement and set their own – weaker – standards.
Setting mandatory global and regional speed limits for shipping is legally and technically feasible and does not require major administrative and economic burdens for enforcement. Reduced speed results in dramatic reductions in ship emissions - CO2, air pollution and particulates - and does not pose technical, operational or safety dangers. These were the main conclusions of a 4 October seminar on ship speed limits organised in Brussels by Transport & Environment and Seas at Risk.
Shipping has become the first industry to agree a global carbon dioxide reduction strategy. This month’s vote at the International Maritime Organisation approved the establishment of an Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) for new ships. T&E welcomed the decision, but says it cannot be seen as a solution on its own, especially because the EEDI will take many years to be truly effective.
The Czech president Vaclav Klaus has intervened to stop the Czech Republic introducing low-emissions zones.
The European Commission last week proposed stricter controls on dangerous sulphur in ship fuel [1] Environmental NGOs welcomed what they described as a long overdue proposal, which will bring the EU in line with the standards agreed by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 3 years ago.
The Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) is calling on six European countries to ratify a crucial piece of marine environmental legislation, in order to enable their participation at a crucial vote on energy efficiency standards for ships at a meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) this Summer.
Letter from the European Environmental Bureau and the Clean Shipping Coalition to the Hungarian Presidency of the EU on International Maritime Organization (IMO) measures to cut greenhouse gases from ships.
Shipping could become the first industry to have a global carbon dioxide reduction measure. A legislative process has been set in motion at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) which, if approved, could see obligatory energy efficiency standards for new ships come into effect in 2013. A vote is expected at the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in July.
Download the presentations here.