New legislation designed to help reduce CO2 emissions comes
into force next year, and it looks like causing a headache for the shipping
industry. The 0.1 percent sulphur in fuel requirements in Emission Control
Areas regulation will come into effect on 1 January 2015.
The maximum sulphur content in bunker fuel permitted in ECA
zones will reduce from 1 per cent to 0.1 per cent, which means that ship
operators will be forced to switch to tanks of distillate fuel, which is
around 50 per cent more expensive.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) estimates that
total greenhouse gas emissions from global maritime transport have already
reduced by around 20 per cent between 2007 and 2012, but the sector is still
looking at the implementation of mandatory global regulations for CO2
emissions, which are targeted at reducing CO2 in the future.
International Chamber of Shipping Secretary general Peter
Hinchliffe said,
"The shipping
industry fully recognises that governments expect even greater CO2 efficiency
improvements in the future. Given the very high cost of fuel which is soon set
to increase by around 50% due to separate new rules on sulphur the industry
already has every incentive to deliver this,"
The introduction of these strict regulations is problematic
for the shipping industry, with regulations banning ships from burning sulphur
port in due to the environmental impact. This is likely to have an even greater
effect on large vessels with more 4000 containers.
Some ships are
finding fuelling to be a big problem already; there have been reports of
vessels actually plugging into power sources when arrive at shore – this also
proves to be an expensive option so it’s not a viable solution. Other ships have
been turning to LPG instead of diesel in order to cut costs, or other fuels,
but this is only possible when a ship runs on a line - there is no guarantee
that alternative fuels will be available at all ports.
On top of this, there are even greater worries ahead about
availability of fuel, and the impact of legislation on the cost, with a 0.5 percent global cap on sulphur due to take
effect in 2020. Experts believe that an increase from the shipping industry in
the demand for diesel grade fuel could even have an impact on land based
industry .
