Shipping Emissions in Spotlight at Israeli Ports

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday November 28, 2019

A survey of ship emissions conducted for Israel's environment ministry has concluded that ship calls to the ports of Haifa and Ashod are responsible for 6% to 15% of all emissions hazardous to human health in Israel.

According to the survey, the annual quantities of emissions from Haifa, as of 2018, came to 11,000 metric tonnes of nitrous oxides and 9,000 mt of sulfur oxides. Emissions from Ashdod last year were smaller by about a third, according to local news provider Haaretz.

But the survey gave a worse picture of shipping emissions pollution than the ministry's own pollution estimates. Aviv AMCG and SP Interface undertook the survey.  The environment ministry said differences in pollution estimates would most probably be explained by survey methodology, the report said.

The global cap on sulfur in bunker will fall from 3.5% to 0.5% on January 1 while the momentum behind making the Mediterranean area into an emissions control area is gaining ground. The sulfur cap on fuel used by ships in an ECA is 0.1%.