Regulations
7 March 2024
Environmental NGOs urge UK to expand its ECA zone
Several environmental NGOs have jointly called on the UK government to extend its ECA to cover all of the UK's waters.
PHOTO: A container ship sailing through the English Channel. Getty Images
The International Maritime Organisation has designated areas in the North Sea, Baltic Sea, North America and the US Caribbean Sea as Emission Control Areas (ECAs). The UK waters in the eastern and southern sections of the English Channel fall within the North Sea ECA zone.
Ships passing through these ECAs are required to burn marine fuels with a sulphur content of less than 0.10%, such as LSMGO or ULSFO, or to use scrubber systems to scrub down the SOx in exhaust from burning HSFO.
The NGOs have urged the UK government to expand its Emission Control Area (ECA) in key water passages and collaborate with neighbouring coastal states to establish an ECA that goes beyond UK waters. This expansion could include the Irish Sea, encompassing the western coast of the UK and the coastline of Northern Ireland within the ECA boundaries.
According to the UK government’s commissioned research, expanding the ECA could bring economic benefits of up to £414.7 million ($452 million), the open letter from the NGOs argued.
“Ships passing through non-ECA UK waters will be well-equipped to meet ECA standards already in place in, for example, the Baltic and North Seas,” environmental NGO Opportunity Green’s policy officer Blánaid Sheeran said. “It does not make sense to allow these ships to revert to emitting harmful pollutants when sailing through non-ECA designated UK waters,” she added.
Environmental NGOs including Opportunity Green, Transport & Environment, Green Alliance, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo (ECODES), ZERO, and the Clean Arctic Alliance have jointly signed this open letter.
By Aparupa Mazumder
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