zoomImage Courtesy: HELCOM

Legislation cutting nitrogen oxides (NOx) from shipping in the Baltic and North Seas has moved a step closer with a decision by countries bordering the Baltic Sea to apply for tighter NOx limits in designated so-called ‘emission control areas’ (ECAs), the European association of environmental organizations Transport and Environment comments.

Namely, at the Annual Meeting of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) held on March 10, the nine Baltic coastal countries and the EU agreed on a Roadmap which includes a commitment to submit to IMO a proposal for a Baltic Sea NOx Emission Control Area (NECA) in parallel with the North Sea.

The Roadmap is to be submitted to the IMO MEPC 70 meeting, scheduled for October 2016. The IMO’s environmental committee is also to consider a parallel application for an ECA in the North Sea and English Channel at the meeting.

The rules that allow for certain sea areas to be designated an ECA are set in the International Maritime Organisation’s Marpol convention. They allow limits to be set for sulphur, NOx and particulate matter. Sulphur standards for the Baltic and North Seas have already been tightened but so far only the North American and Caribbean ECAs have lower NOx limits.

Shipping in the Baltic Sea causes more than 13,000 tonnes of airborne nitrogen to be emitted each year, worsening the existing problem of eutrophication. If the Baltic were declared a NOx ECA, it is expected to reduce nitrogen pollution by around 7,000 tonnes annually, Transport and Environment said.

Moves to have NOx included in the Baltic ECA were first discussed in 2007, but a series of environmental and economic studies to justify the NOx limits have taken several years to complete and in 2014 Russia failed to join its Helcom partners in agreeing to go forward with an application to the IMO.

This coincided with Russian moves to delay the Tier III implementation dates for all NECAs which resulted in the fixed date in MARPOL for new ECAs to apply to North America only. As a consequence, under the forthcoming Baltic and North Sea applications, ‘Tier III’ NOx requirements for new ship engines would apply only from 2021.