EMEA News
EU Authorities Seek 2015 ECA Enforcement Plan
European authorities are considering methods to enforce sulfur limits in Emission Control Areas (ECAs) when new rules take effect at the start of 2015, industry news site ShippingWatch reports.
"We're currently at a stage where we're investigating which initiatives and methods that are possible to introduce, and we're working at both Nordic and EU [Eureopean Union] levels to establish a joint project, as this does represent an international problem that can't be solved in Denmark alone," said Dorte Kubel of the Danish Ministry of the Environment.
Kubel said Denmark plans to have an enforcement strategy in place by January 1, 2015, when the 0.10 percent limit on sulfur by weight in marine fuel takes effect in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and English Channel, but it may be a temporary plan based on random samplings performed on ships calling at Danish ports.
Denmark uses that method today to check compliance with current fuel standards, but only 75 of the tests are done each year.
Overall in Europe, only one in 1,000 ships have had their fuel tested, according to Maersk Line and Maersk Tankers data.
Only 10 of 7,000 inspected ships under Port State Control in 2012 were detained over problems with their fuel.
EU authorities are working to develop new technology to enforce the rules, and to increase fuel sampling to better understand how many violations are taking place.
"We support a harmonization within the EU, in order to ensure that the reportings and statistics are gathered centrally, which would make the effort more effective internationally than otherwise possible if Denmark is working alone," Kubel said.
In November, European NGO Transport & Environment predicted "massive non-compliance" with the emission rules unless authorities adopt an effective monitoring method.
