“China ECA”Needs to be Resolved

Reporter Yang Peiju

On July 3,the non-profit international environmental protection organization,the Natural Resources Defense Council(NRDC) issued a white paper on ship and port pollution prevention in Beijing. The white paper points out that the PM2.5 pollutant emission of a medium-sized container ship equals to that of 500,000 diesel cars per day. The news sends out a shudder across the nation. Under the current time when people are afraid of haze,this news will def i nitely attract public attentions.

The European Environmental Protection Bureau in 2013 issued a report on the impact of international shipping on European air quality and on climate change,which indicates that since 1990,emissions of PM2.5,NOx and other air pollutants from ships have been continuing to increase,and at the same time,emissions from surface transport have gradually reduced. If the situation continues,the shipping industry will become the biggest source of emission of air pollutants in Europe by 2020,and it may even surpass the sum of all land pollutants. In China,the situation is more serious than in Europe. With the rapid development of national economy,China's shipping industry has made great progress,shipbuilding and port throughput rank among the top of the world. At the same time,the pollution brought about by shipping and port is becoming more and more serious. Emission of ships at port has become the important pollution source in the coastal and river cities. Many experts are calling for establishing China's ECA as soon as possible.

During the NPC and CPPCC this year,Jin Donghan said during an interview that it is urgent to control pollutions by ships and legislation for air pollution by ships should be promoted. Limitation for emissions by ships should be regulated by the top national law,the industry should introduce and implement industry standards on river ships. At the same time,the country should waste no time to develop corresponding policies for clean energy transformation and subsidies and funding solutions in order to speed up pollution prevention process. In addition,he also called for strengthening the study of air pollution emission list,since the list is a fundamental work for control of pollutant emissions by ships. Related study has been carried out in some parts of China,but a systematic and comprehensive study is still lacking and the national list of emissions by ships has not yet established.

Hu Keyi,the Chief Engineer of Jiangnan shipbuilding believes that from a long-term point of view,it is just a matter of time for the domestic coastal areas,inland waters,city port waters,inland water areas and coastal waters to issue emission standards similar to ECA waters. For this,he suggests that the port waters,inland waters and city coastal waters of the fi ve major cruise center cities should be taken as the pilot to implement as soon as possible ship emission standards similar to the ECA waters. Secondly,for other areas,new emission standards and corresponding graded implementation plans as well as planned implementation timetable for city port waters,inland waters and coastal waters should be developed; relevant policies and regulations should be improved,there should be strict detailed stipulations and notices on the handling of water,noise and air pollutions and solid waste at the early stage of port construction. Thirdly,by taking the opportunity of implementing emission standards of the new city port waters,inland waters and coastal waters,to promote the application of new energy and alternative energy by ships. Fourthly,greatly increase the proportion of the container water transshipment and evacuation transport to improve the comprehensive effect of emission reduction,to grant appropriate subsidies and reduction of tax,etc for container feeder ships and old ships adopting new energy and alternative energy.Fifthly,to uniformly layout the supporting construction of shore side charging stations for electric-powered ships. Sixthly,LNG energy companies take the lead to uniformly plan the construction of terminal and the gas supply station.

Thus,from the current situation,which region may become the fi rst domestic ECA area? Peng Chuansheng thinks that the condition of Pearl River Delta is more mature,because it faces with the situation like Shenzhen,Guangzhou and Hong Kong,land reduction and governance is relatively better,ships are the main source of emission.

It is reported that at present Hong Kong is doing intensive research on fuel oil waste emissions by ships calling at the port,and it is about to issue relevant specif i cations on emission standards for capacities of various types of ships. The draft will be submitted to the legislation council in late summer or early autumn,and might be discussed and adopted in the fourth quarter.At the same time,Hong Kong,in order to achieve the goal of green shipping,will conduct research and study with the local government of Guangdong Province on establishing the first ECA in Asia in the Pearl River Delta,which is the basis for China to establish its own ECAs.