Lucinda Roberts, Associate at law firm Clyde & Co. throws some light on the much required international standard in use of Aerial drones despite their potential to help enforcement of emissions legislation.
Lucinda opines that after the rise of much sought out thought to implement the 0.1% sulphur cap in Emission Control Areas (ECAs) on January 1, 2015, the use of drones in shipping industry to monitor the sulphur emissions of marine fuel have become a hot topic. She also tries to figure out the use and purpose of drones in more than one place. According to her, the drones are used in port states to help monitor vessels’ compliance with the sulphur cap. Besides, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is assessing the potential for drones in other areas such as search and rescue, detecting and monitoring of pollution levels and other emissions.
Though the present scenario with regard to the potential benefits of this technology are positive, there needs a little attention to practical and legal considerations. She calls for an international framework which can govern the application of drones to detect the sulphur emissions. Therefore, each port state can take a stand on the rules they are to impose.
Some of the concerns raised by her are as follows:
The practicalities of administering and enforcing drone use are complex and it includes the following questions:
- Which state(s) will pay for and maintain the drones?
- Which state(s) will enforce and use the drone obtained evidence?
- In which jurisdiction will non-compliance penalties based on that evidence be pursued?
The above mentioned questions need some time in the future to figure out answers. There are certain statements that can be looked up for a better understanding on this topic.
The evidences collected by the drones serve the purpose!
The emissions evidence obtained by drones will likely be a useful tool when a state is evaluating a ship’s compliance with the emissions regulations. However, certain pitfalls may question the strength and weight of that evidence, including the reliability of the evidence obtained, the potential for contamination of emissions from other vessels and issues of safety and security.
Drones under Trial to detect sulphur emissions!
Some EU countries, including Denmark, are trialling drone use and static “sniffer” technology (on the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark) to assist with their sulphur cap compliance regime. The results appear to indicate that it is an effective way of detecting levels of sulphur emissions. Although still in the early stages, evidence obtained by drones and static “sniffer” technology is likely to be used as a preliminary identification tool to detect a potential non-compliance, and initiate a ship inspection. This would appear to be the case in Turkey, where the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Marine Services Directorate recently announced it will use drones to complement existing enforcement mechanisms to monitor marine pollution, improve surveillance and enforce penalties.
Evidence collected by drones are only a supporting factor!
However, it seems unlikely that reliance could be placed solely on that evidence when penalising a vessel for non-compliance with the sulphur cap. Chapter 2 of Annex VI of Marpol stipulates the regime for documentary compliance required of each ship and requires states to carry out ship inspections to establish non-compliance with the sulphur cap. The EU Implementing Decision 2015/253 requires Member States to inspect log books and bunker delivery notes on board at least 10% of the total number of individual ships calling in that state each year and as from 1 January this year, the marine fuel on board a certain percentage of those ships inspected must be sampled to verify the sulphur content, according to the Member State’s proximity to the ECA.
While it is highly unlikely that a state will be able to rely on drone obtained evidence alone, the use of drones could become a helpful tool in assisting states to monitor emissions compliance, as well as performing other useful functions for the shipping industry. IMO involvement may be needed to provide global standards which will ensure consistency.
Source: The Motorship
