Ships in the Mediterranean must now use cleaner fuel with lower sulphur content, as the sea on Thursday becomes the world’s fifth low-emissions zone. Reducing sulphur emissions is expected to improve…

Ships in the Mediterranean must now use cleaner fuel with lower sulphur content, as the sea on Thursday becomes the world’s fifth low-emissions zone. Reducing sulphur emissions is expected to improve air and water quality and benefit human and environmental health.

Ferries, container and cruise ships are now required to use fuel with a lower sulphur content, under rules designed to improve air quality around the Mediterranean Sea.

The requirement follows a 2022 agreement by the International Maritime Organisation to create a Sulphur Oxides and Particulate Matter Emission Control Area (SECA) covering the entire Mediterranean.

The requirement follows a June 2022 agreement by the International Maritime Organisation to create a Sulphur Oxides and Particulate Matter Emission Control Area (SECA) covering the entire Mediterranean.

To comply with the zone, ships must now use fuel with a sulphur content of 0.1 percent, down from the previous 0.5 percent allowed. The French government said this amounts to using fuel five times less polluting than the international standard outside SECA zones.

Cutting sulphur oxide emissions will also reduce fine particle pollution. These particles can worsen respiratory and cardiovascular conditions and harm marine ecosystems.

The French maritime authority for the Mediterranean (DIRM), which oversees enforcement, said shipowners had already begun switching fuels to comply.

“We already have fairly strict restrictions that apply to ships in European ports,” Fanny Pointet, who leads sustainable shipping work at the NGO Transport & Environment, told France Info.

“The strength of this new measure is that it will apply across the whole of the Mediterranean Sea, so not only in European ports, but also in North African ports for example.”

The Mediterranean now joins four other SECA zones: the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the coastal waters off the United States and Canada, and the US Caribbean Sea around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The northern European zones have contributed to a 70 percent drop in sulphur oxide emissions in the EU since 2014. However, nitrogen oxide emissions from ships increased by 10 percent between 2015 and 2023.

The European Commission and countries bordering the Mediterranean are currently exploring the creation of a Nitrogen Oxides Emission Control Area (NECA) to impose stricter limits on nitrogen-based pollutants from ships.

(with AFP)