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Slowing down ships saves emissions and money ... and works instantly

Slowing down ships by regulating slow steaming can make a massive difference to the environmental impact of sea transport, and save ship operators lots of money. These are the conclusions of a report by the Dutch consultancy CE Delft commissioned by T&E and Seas At Risk.

MEPs vote to clean up air pollution from shipping

Efforts to remove one of the main causes of air pollution and acid rain from shipping have been boosted by a vote in the European Parliament. MEPs on the environment committee have approved draft rules to reduce the sulphur content of marine fuels. The changes now have to be confirmed by environment ministers and by the full Parliament.

Cleaner ship fuels – it’s about time!

Sketch of some documents (default image for news

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.

Seminar on slow steaming and speed limits for shipping

When?: 
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - 09:30 to 16:30
Where?: 
EUROCITIES
Square de Meeûs 1
B-1000  Brussels
Belgium

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.

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