Malta: Call for ECA to Combat Emissions

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday July 19, 2018

Pollution from international shipping lanes between Sicily and Malta is more of threat to public health than the island's old power stations, a Maltese academic has said.

Speaking to local news provider the Times of Malta, University of Malta professor Raymond Ellul said that 200 ships sail by the island daily.

"This is literally like having a power station sailing just past the island every few minutes, perhaps worse," Ellul, who has been monitoring shipping emissions over Malta for some time, was quoted as saying.

To address the issue of shipping pollution, Ellul is calling for an emission control area (ECA) to be set up around Malta.  ECAs, which already exist in the North and Baltic Seas, cap the sulfur content of bunker fuel at 0.1%.

Another academic at work at Malta is Axel Friedrich, who recently made headlines reporting on emissions at Gibraltar.

According to the report, Friedrich found that the air around Valletta is reach toxic levels 10 times higer than Malta's most congested roads.

Earlier this year, the German scientist spoke at a conference looking at setting up an ECA for the Mediterranean Sea.