World News
MEDECA: Earliest Implementation 2024
The earliest an emissions control area can be agreed and set up in the Mediterranean (MEDECA) would be 2024, a webinar on the subject was told this week.
If a proposal is accepted at the International Maritime Organisation in 2022, it would take a further two years before the ECA came into force.
However, the groundswell is building as a number of studies -- two more are to be released by the French government in January -- detailing the impact of a MEDECA on health and the economy show the benefits of such a move outweighing the costs.
One survey said the beneficial gain over cost would be on average by a factor of seven by 2030, rising to a factor of 12 by 2050
On public health, the same survey showed that if all the Mediterranean littoral states signed up to caps on the emission of SOx and NOx, 12,000 premature deaths would be saved by 2050.
The European Union states have moved further ahead on this issue. However, under the Barcelona Convention, there is a route for non-EU states to climb onboard.
Webinar participants expressed hope for the 2024 timeframe but acknowledged that the economic strain caused by the pandemic had raised uncertainty.
The MEDECA webinar was organised by German environmentalist group NABU. A recording ot the online meeting will be made available on the group's website.