London – The UN International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) today adopted an Emission Control Area (ECA) in the Northeast Atlantic. It enter into force in September 2027.
The UN agency had failed to green light the historic development during a turbulent IMO meeting last October. But coastal states have moved to drastically reduce air pollution from ships in a vast sea area stretching from Portugal to Greenland, via Britain and Ireland.
“This is indeed a massive win for coastal and Indigenous communities and for the marine environment from Portugal to Greenland, but also an opportunity to look ahead and fill in the gaps”, remarked Carolina Silva, shipping policy officer at ZERO, a Clean Arctic Alliance member.
“The Atlantic ECA will connect existing ECAs in the North and the Baltic Seas, and the recently adopted Canadian Arctic waters and Norwegian EEZ, to the Mediterranean SECA in the south. It’s very clear that moving forward, the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores, as well as the Spanish Canary Islands, should be included both to guarantee an economic level playing field, but most importantly to protect the coastal communities from the harmful effects of air pollution from ships.”
Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, declared: “The adoption of this new Emission Control Area in the Northeast Atlantic is a welcome and significant milestone for reducing the impact of shipping’s sulfur oxide (SOx) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions on the Arctic. It is frustrating that despite the efforts of a large number of IMO Member States to reduce shipping air pollution, one country, Russia, whose waters are not even included within the boundaries of the ECA have indicated that they will not follow the requirements. It is now imperative that this new ECA must be complemented by an IMO regulation aimed at directly limiting emissions of black carbon, which have a disproportionate impact on the Arctic.
“Since black carbon (or soot) particles are transported in the atmosphere, a polar fuel regulation is needed that must apply throughout the whole wider Arctic and not just those areas where sea or glacier ice can be expected.”
By restricting the use of the most polluting shipping fuels, the North East Atlantic Emission Control area will see SOx emissions cut by up to 82% and particulate matter by 64%, which will avoid thousands of premature deaths by 2050, and have a co-benefit of reducing the black carbon emissions which have a detrimental impact on Arctic snow and ice.
(IMO image of ECA)