UK urged to back North Atlantic ECA scheme

Climate action NGO Opportunity Green has urged the UK’s new Labour government to support the calls for the North Atlantic Emissions Control Area (ECA).

Highlighting a recent study into the impact of an ECA in the North Atlantic Ocean published by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), Opportunity Green said the new UK government should get on board with evidence and confirm its participation in the scheme.

The ICCT study found that, dependent on the dominant method used to comply with the regulations, this ECA could lead to an 82% reduction in SOx emissions; a 64% reduction in PM2.5 soot particles, and a 36% reduction in black carbon emissions.

If adopted, the proposed North Atlantic ECA could become the world’s largest, covering waters as far north as Greenland to as far south as Spain. The ICCT has recommended that the Atlantic ECA member states should include the full exclusive economic zones of Spain, Portugal, France, the UK, Ireland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland in the geographic scope of the AtlECA.

In March, Opportunity Green joined with a number of other NGOs in calling on the former UK government to extend the existing North Sea and English Channel ECA to all UK waters and also collaborate with neighbouring coastal states to link up into the proposed North Atlantic ECA.

“This study is a key piece of evidence that countries have been waiting for, and its message is unequivocal – a North Atlantic ECA would lead to impressive emissions reductions. This is an especially important topic for the new UK government as UK waters experience heavy shipping traffic and are in the top three most-polluted North-Atlantic coastal states,” said Lord Deben, former chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee.

An ECA currently exists in UK waters to the east and south in the English Channel and the North Sea, in which a sulphur cap of 0.1% and a NOx limit for ships built after 2021 apply. A study commissioned by the government found in 2020 that UK domestic shipping alone accounted for 12.7% of the country’s total domestic NOx emissions, 2.2% of its fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions, and 4.9% of its total domestic sulphur dioxide emissions.