More countries are setting their own restrictions on scrubber water discharges. Poland said it could not support an International Chamber of Shipping motion because its ‘low ambition’ meant more national discharge restrictions around the world, instead of global rules the IMO preferred
DIVISIONS between states about limiting scrubber water discharges were on display at the International Maritime Organization yesterday, as a global ban remains a distant prospect.
The pollution subcommittee (PPR12) is working this week on how to set scrubbers’ emission factors to help assess their risk to the environment, pulling together many years of work on the topic.
Scrubbers strip sulphur from exhaust gas, letting ships comply with the IMO’s 0.5% sulphur cap more cheaply by continuing to burn high-sulphur fuel oil.
Green groups have long argued they merely shift pollution from air to sea, with “severe consequences for the marine environment”.
The IMO is coming under pressure to come up with a global measure since more than 40 countries have set curbs on the technology in their sovereign waters, most recently Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Italy went further than most at PPR12 on Tuesday in backing “a clear timeline for phasing out open-loop scrubbers already instead on existing ships”.
On the other side, states including Brazil, Iran, India and Croatia backed the International Chamber of Shipping’s motion to keep working within its existing scrubber framework — voluntary guidelines — and to not unduly penalise ships with scrubbers already fitted.
ICS has argued (PPR12/7/3) that most of the national restrictions applied to internal waters such as ports, harbours and estuaries, not the territorial waters where foreign ships have right of innocent passage.
It said they were “often implemented on a precautionary basis rather than based on clear evidence” and global regulation should follow clear data.
But Poland criticised this approach’s “low ambition”, saying the IMO’s lack of a regulation was leading to the increase in national regulations around the world, something the IMO did not like.
It pointed to a 2023 submission by the EU27 and European Commission (MEPC80/5/5) on “the urgent need for uniform and unambiguous regulatory measures to better control potential pollution from EGCS and reduce the economic impacts both for the industry and administrations”.
The EU states said there was increasing scientific evidence from sampling and analysis on the potential toxicity of scrubber water discharges.
Italy said it recognised efforts by the industry but required “scrutiny to be exercised with regard to the methodologies and data handling, including the submission of raw data”.
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