Mediterranean ECA More Likely

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday October 24, 2018

Environmental and health benefits will accrue from setting up an emissions control area or ECA in the Mediterranean region, environmentalists have said.

The assertion is based on new research into the issue, which was unveiled at a side event by the French delegation at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) environment committee (MEPC73) meeting taking place in London this week.

"The results are unambiguous," Sönke Diesener, transport policy officer at Germany-based environmentalist organisation NABU, said.

An ECA would mean cleaner and healthier air for the residents in Mediterranean countries.

Co-operation among the littoral states would now be needed to facilitate the adoption of a Mediterranean ECA at the IMO, Diesener added.

France hosted a conference on a Mediterranean ECA in Paris in May. At that event, the research project the results of which would form the basis of moving the issue forward was instigated.