The Baltic Maritime Emission Control Area (ECA) – Precedent for a Mediterranean ECA?

Thomas L. Brewer,
Emeritus Faculty,
Georgetown University,
USA

The Baltic Sea’s maritime Emission Control Area (ECA) was the world’s first regional agreement to establish limits on international shipping emissions below those set globally by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The Baltic ECA was agreed by the nine Baltic governments in 1997 and entered into force in 2005; it sets lower limits on sulfur oxide (SOx) and nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions by ships while in the Baltic Sea, as compared with the global limits of the IMO. The Baltic limits on the two emissions are similar to those of the other three ECAs – namely North Sea/English Channel, North America (Atlantic and Pacific coasts) and US-Caribbean Territories.

In recent years, the Baltic ECA and other ECAs have received increased attention within Europe because of the possibility of establishing a Mediterranean ECA of nearly all of the coastal countries, with ports in southern Europe, northern Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. As many as 200 million people in coastal zones – including those in urban areas near major ports – are thus exposed to SOx, NOx and other emissions from tankers, container ships and others passing through in East-West routes on their way to ports in northern Europe and from cruise ships in North-South and North-North routes connecting major tourist areas.

The national governments of France, Italy and Spain have endorsed the creation of a ‘Med ECA,’ and the European Commission has sponsored research on the issues posed by the design and establishment of such an ECA. Of the many issues, one is the kinds of emissions that could be  covered. As noted above, the Baltic ECA covers both SOx and NOx – as does the North Sea/English Channel ECA – though the other two ECAs do not. There are significant differences between SOx and NOx emissions, but there are cost-effective advantages of reducing both.

Another issue about the kinds of emissions that are covered concerns black carbon (BC). The Baltic ECA does not include BC, though it is technically included in the North American ECA. BC is an extremely potent climate change forcing agent; its Global Warming Potential compared with carbon dioxide is on the order of thousands of times greater per tonne at 20 years and hundreds of times greater at 100 years. In its totality, BC is thus one of the three principal contributors to global warming, along with carbon dioxide and methane. BC is also a major contributor to global public health problems. Because of its small size compared with other air pollutants, it can penetrate human lungs and cause lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases, including asthma, as well as cardiovascular disease. Although BC poses different regulatory issues because it is particulate matter, not a gas, there are widely used technological means to limit emissions of them.

Yet another issue is about enforcement of regulations once they are in effect. Members of the Baltic ECA have developed and deployed several monitoring systems, which can measure ships´ emissions from land-based equipment near ports, from other systems attached to bridges that ships entering and leaving the Baltic Sea must pass under, and from airborne systems carried by drones that can fly through ships´ emission plumes. Technological monitoring systems are thus available to prove factual records of individual ships’ compliance or non-compliance with the emission limits.

The situation concerning enforcement processes is more complex. Enforcement mechanisms applied to ships in the ECAs – as well as those outside the ECAs but still covered by IMO limits – are established in the context of a system of Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) signed by 145 national governments and territories. Altogether, the MOUs cover tens of thousands of ships that enter hundreds of ports each year. The Baltic ECA ports are included among the ports in the Paris MOU, which includes the ports of most European countries.

In short, the Baltic ECA provides a potentially useful precedent for the establishment of a Med ECA, which would significantly reduce ships’ emissions in heavily populated coastal regions. Although the Baltic and other ECAs are not yet comprehensive in their coverage of the types of emissions or comprehensive in their enforcement procedures, they can serve as useful precedents for the design, creation and operation of a Med ECA.

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