Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2016)617 - EU position at the IMO concerning the designation and taking effect of the Baltic Sea and North Sea as Nitrogen Oxyde Emissions Control Area (NECA) - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2016)617 - EU position at the IMO concerning the designation and taking effect of the Baltic Sea and North Sea as Nitrogen Oxyde ... |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2016)617  |
| date | 22-09-2016 |
Contents
The present Commission proposal concerns the establishment of the Union position at the 70th and 71st session of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in relation to the approval and adoption of the amendments to Annex VI to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) concerning the designation and taking effect of the Baltic Sea and North Sea as Nitrogen Oxyde Emissions Control Areas (NECA).
In order to prevent, reduce and control nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from ships, MARPOL Annex VI provides the possibility to designate, at the request of the Parties having a common interest in a particular sea area, a NECA. A request for designation needs to be submitted to the IMO which has to consider, approve and adopt the necessary amendments to MARPOL Annex VI such that the proposed designation of a particular sea area as NECA can enter into force and take effect. All EU Member States except for Austria and Hungary have ratified MARPOL Annex VI.
The first NECAs that were designated in the North American Seas and the United States Caribbean Sea areas, took effect on 1 January 2016. When operating in those sea areas, an engine which is installed on a ship constructed after that date will have to comply with the so-called Tier III requirements laid down in MARPOL Annex VI.
The most common available emission abatement technologies that would ensure compliance with the Tier III requirements are exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, or engines (partly) fuelled by liquified natural gas (LNG).
In anticipation of the substantial environmental and health benefits, and following the North American example, all the Baltic Sea and North Sea riparian States jointly decided to propose the designation of both seas as NECAs to the IMO in order to significantly reduce the total amount of NOx emissions from ships over time.
NOx emissions from ships in the Baltic Sea and North Sea contribute significantly to air pollution, especially in big coastal cities, through particulate matter (PM) formation, ground ozone formation and contribution to nitrogen dioxides (NO2) concentrations, all having adverse effects on human health. Nitrogen input to the marine and terrestrial environment through atmospheric deposition also contributes to the eutrophication of the sea and land.
Eutrophication is a major problem in the Baltic Sea. NOx emissions from ships contribute to the total nitrogen input to the marine environment through atmospheric deposition, thus exacerbating the problem of Baltic Sea eutrophication. The application of Tier III regulations resulting from the designation of the Baltic as NECA could reduce eutrophication in several Baltic Sea areas by up to 20-30%.
Without any control measures, NOx emissions from North Sea shipping will contribute between 7% to 24% to the average annual ambient air concentrations of NOx in the North Sea riparian states in 2030. Contributions from shipping to nitrogen deposition in the North Sea states range from 2% to 5%. Designation of the North Sea as NECA is expected to reduce these contributions of North Sea shipping emissions by about one-third.
Following the preference expressed by the Baltic Sea and North Sea riparian States to have a parallel, synchronized NECA designation process in both the North Sea and in the Baltic Sea, a Roadmap setting out the steps leading towards such simultaeneous designation and taking effect of both seas as NECAs was developed.
The Roadmap 1 envisages the submission of both designation requests to the IMO in July 2016 in view of approval of the MEPC at its 70th session (October 2016), followed by adoption at MEPC 71 (Spring 2017). The proposed date when both NECAs should take effect is set on 1 January 2021 in order to give operators sufficient time to prepare and adapt.
Following comprehensive preparatory work outlining the impacts and benefits of both NECA designations, the draft designation requests were discussed in technical workshops that took place in Russia and in Denmark in May 2016. The (final) draft designation requests were also circulated among the Council's Working Party on Shipping on 19 May 2016 and on 29 June 2016.
In line with the Roadmap, the 50th HELCOM Heads of Delegation meeting that took place in Estonia on 15-16 June 2016 endorsed submitting the NECA designation request to the IMO on 1 July 2016 by the respective riparian States. Following the agreement of HELCOM, the North Sea States could proceed with submitting their designation request in parallel in order to follow the timeframe for simultaneous approval and adoption by IMO as set out in the joint Roadmap.
In accordance with the criteria and procedure set out in Regulation 13.6 and appendix III to MARPOL Annex VI for proposing the designation of a particular sea area as a NECA, the submission by the Baltic and North Seas riparian States puts forward the necessary amendments to Regulation 13 paragraphs 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 that would add the North Sea and Baltic Sea to the already designated North American and United States Caribbean Sea Area NECAs, while specifying that the North Sea and Baltic Sea NECAs will take effect on 1 January 2021.
Following the submission of the proposed amendments by the North Sea and Baltic Sea States to the IMO on 1 July 2016, consideration and approval of the proposed amendments is expected at the 70th session of the MEPC (scheduled to take place between 24 to 28 October 2016), following which the amendments are expected to be submitted for adoption to the 71st session of the MEPC (scheduled to take place in Spring 2017).
Once approved and adopted by the Committee, the amendments to MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 13 as set out above will be communicated for acceptance to the MARPOL Annex VI Contracting Parties.
The designation of NECAs in EU waters would significantly contribute to achieving the objectives set out in Union policy on environment aiming at preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the marine environment and protecting human health by improving air quality. The Commission's impact assessement accompanying the 2013 Clean Air Policy Package 2 noted that although any decisions on specific Union measures regulating NOx emissions from shipping would need a separate, more specific analysis, there is clear potential for shipping to cost-effectively deliver NOx emission reductions which would contribute to improving the quality of the marine environment and the air.
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive 3 requires Member States to take the necessary measures to achieve or maintain good environmental status in the marine environment by 2020. Good environmental status means 'the environmental status of marine waters where these provide ecologically diverse and dynamic oceans and seas which are clean, healthy, and productive within their intrinsic conditions, and the use of the marine environment is at a level that is sustainable, thus safeguarding, the potential uses and activities by current and future generations' (Article 3(5) of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive). Determining good environmental status requires, inter alia, that human-induced eutrophication is minimised, especially adverse effects thereof, such as losses in biodiversity, ecosystem degradation, harmful algae blooms and oxygen deficiency in bottom waters (all of which especially in the Baltic Sea occur at wide scale). Reducing nitrogen inputs originating from maritime shipping through the application of the Tier III requirements following from the designation of the North Sea and Baltic Sea as NECAs, will support the EU Member States bordering those seas with achieving good environmental status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
The Ambient Air Quality Directive 4 sets, inter alia, limit values for NO2 with the aim of avoiding, preventing or reducing harmful effects on human health and/or the environment caused by air pollution. The limit value for the annual mean NO2 concentration is set at 40 microgram/m3.. Especially in the North Sea riparian States this maximum concentration is exceeded in different regions and zones. Shipping emissions can contribute significantly to local air quality problems in Europe, especially when considering that in the North Sea 89% of ship emisisons are within 50 nautical mile from shore 5 .
The Ambient Air Quality Directive recognizes that in order to achieve the objectives set out in that Directive, it is particularly important to combat emissions of pollutants at source in particular by measures which would limit the exhaust emissions of the engines of various mobile and stationary sources through engine or fuel quality standards.
The Union has put in place various pieces of legislation regulating emissions by means of engine standards for various road transport modes (cars, trucks and vans through the Euro standards 6 ) and non-road mobile machinery sources (inland waterway vessels and locomotives through the Non-Road Mobile Machinery Directive 7 ). Sulphur emissions from maritime transport in European waters have been regulated through the directive setting out sulphur-content-in-fuel requirements for ships 8 . This directive also transposes the designation of both North Sea and the Baltic Sea as Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs) under MARPOL Annex VI into Union law. The entry into force of low sulphur in fuel requirements on 1 January 2015 in the two SECAs has resulted in reduced concentration of sulphur in coastal regions.
Although NOx emissions from international maritime shipping have not been regulated at the source by Union legislation, it is recognised that sea transport is a significant contributor to the total of those emissions, and also to the concentration and deposition in the Union, and, these emissions should be reduced 9 . Given that the designation of the Baltic Sea and North Sea as NECAs will prompt reductions of emissions from international maritime transport, as aimed for in Union legislation, the proposed designation requests to IMO should be supported.
In view of the links between the proposed amendments to MARPOL Annex VI designating the North Sea and Baltic Sea as NECAs and the objectives and requirements set out in the various instruments of Union legislation whose aim is to contribute to preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the marine environment as well as protecting human health by improved air quality, the approval and adoption of the amendments to MARPOL Annex VI may frame the future development of EU legislation in this area.
The provisions of Article 218(9) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union also apply to the adoption of the amendments to MARPOL Annex VI by the IMO, and therefore a Council Decision on the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Union for the amendments to MARPOL Annex VI designating the North Sea and Baltic Sea as NECAs to be approved and adopted at the 70th and 71st session of MEPC respectively is required.