A new study is planned that may identify candidates for new emission control areas (ECAs) in waters around the European Union. The new study for the European Commission would be more detailed than an earlier 2010 analysis on the benefits and costs of ECA designation, for example by looking into a "distance-to-shore" ECA for the Mediterranean.
Results from the 2010 analysis of the costs and benefits of a 0.10% sulphur limit showed clear net benefits from introducing the stricter sulphur standards, especially for the existing SOx ECAs (the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, including the English Channel) but also for potential new SOx ECAs in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
"If candidates for new ECAs are identified by this study, the Commission would support member states bordering such areas to make a corresponding proposal at the International Maritime Organization (IMO)," Commission official Christian Wimmer said.
The Commission is due to review its Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution and the Air Quality Directive in 2013. Additional ECAs could be considered in connection with this policy review. EU member states are free to go ahead with an ECA application to the IMO without awaiting an initiative from the Commission.
Source: Sustainable Shipping News, 23 May 2011.
Europe should take an integrated approach to nitrogen management. This is the main message of the European Nitrogen Assessment, a new report launched during the "Nitrogen and Global Change" conference, in Edinburgh (UK) from 11–14 April, 2011.
The number of premature deaths in Europe caused by air pollutant emissions from international shipping is estimated to amount to approximately 49,500 in the year 2000, and rise to 53,200 in 2020.
There are sufficient resources to provide the world with renewable energy. The main constraint on development is public policy, that is the main message in a new IPCC report.
A handful of measures targeting black carbon and tropospheric ozone can reduce future global warming by 0.5°C, according to a UNEP and WMO report.
Germany's lignite power plants still dominate the CO2 list. Serbia is registering emissions for the first time and enters both the NOx list and the SO2 list.
Mercury emissions from coal-fired plants can be cut by well over 90 per cent, but this fact has so far been neglected in ongoing talks for a revised Heavy Metals Protocol.
As no revision of the European Air Quality legislation is planned until at least 2013, the EU has said it will focus on source-oriented legislation in the meantime. Often neglected in comparison to regulations concerning road vehicles, the so-called "non-road" sector, which includes locomotive ..
"Curbing mobility is not an option," says the European Commission in a new roadmap for the transport sector, expressing a view that immediately sparked criticism.
Prompt action is required to further reduce particulate matter, ground-level ozone, and nitrogen dioxide – an EU clean air strategy should be adopted in 2013.
Significant environmental improvements can be achieved while additional costs still stay well below 0.1 per cent of GDP. Moreover, health benefits alone outweigh the costs by ten times or more.