Climate Action NGO Opportunity Green Calls for UK
Climate action NGO Opportunity Green has today (16 July) urged the UK’s new Labour government to support the establishment of the North Atlantic Emissions Control Area (ECA).
Opportunity Green highlighted a recent study published in June by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which provides the UK government with critical evidence to support a wider Emissions Control Area and reduce shipping’s air polluting emissions.
The ICCT study compared the proposed ECA to a scenario without ECA regulations and found that, dependent on the dominant method used to comply with the regulations, this ECA could lead to an 82% reduction in SOx emissions; a 64% reduction in PM2.5 soot particles, and a 36% reduction in black carbon (BC) emissions.
Potential Geographic Scope
The proposed North Atlantic ECA could be the world’s largest, covering waters as far north as Greenland to as far south as Spain. The ICCT has recommended that the Atlantic ECA member states should include the full exclusive economic zones of Spain, Portugal, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Greenland in the geographic scope of the ‘AtlECA’.
Opportunity Green joined with a number of other NGOs in calling on the UK government which was then a Conservative administration to extend the existing North Sea and English Channel ECA to all UK waters and also collaborate with neighbouring coastal states to link up into the proposed North Atlantic ECA.
Lord Deben, former Chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, was quoted in Opportunity Green’s statement as saying: “This [ICCT] study is a key piece of evidence that countries have been waiting for, and its message is unequivocal – a North Atlantic ECA would lead to impressive emissions reductions. This is an especially important topic for the new UK government as UK waters experience heavy shipping traffic and are in the top three most-polluted North-Atlantic coastal states.”
Blánaid Sheeran, Policy Officer at Opportunity Green, commented: “Shipping’s air polluting emissions pose substantial health risks, including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and increased mortality. With such strong evidence that stricter regulations would reduce these harmful emissions, this is a key moment for the UK government. Confirming its support for the North Atlantic ECA would not only show commitment to public health and marine biodiversity but also enable them to lead on ambitious air pollution prevention and shipping decarbonisation policies.”
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Source: Bunkerspot
