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Diesel Ships: Floating Smokestacks

We applaud U.S. leadership and call on international officials to approve deep pollution cuts from ocean-going vessels

Posted: 03-Oct-2008; Updated: 23-Jun-2009

Diesel Ships: Floating Smokestacks

Map: Coastal areas where particulate pollution would be dramatically cut. See a larger image with cities and legend.

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The U.S. government is charting a course to secure healthier air for the millions of Americans breathing pollution from ocean-going ships.

Officials are submitting an application to the International Maritime Organization (IMO, the international body that governs global shipping regulations) for an Emission Control Area (ECA) — an area where stricter pollution limits apply.

An Emission Control Area would provide the strongest clean air standards available under international law, dramatically improving fuel quality and reducing smog-forming oxides of nitrogen for all ocean-going ships in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, an area that typically extends about 200 nautical miles from the coast. 

Fuel from sea-going ships a major source of pollution

The container ships, tankers and other large sea-going vessels that dock at more than 100 U.S. port cities burn low grade “residual fuel” or “bunker fuel” that is a major source of air pollution. More than 87 million Americans live in ports and coastal communities that fail to meet basic federal health standards for ground-level ozone and particulate pollution.

The residual fuel contains sulfur levels 1,800 times greater than U.S. law allows for other diesel engines.  A recent study by two leading researchers on shipping pollution, Corbett and Winebrake, shows shipping-related particulate matter emissions contribute to approximately 60,000 global deaths annually, with impacts concentrated in coastal regions on major trade routes. 

To secure the health benefits of these protections as soon as possible, the IMO must promptly act on the U.S. application.

New report urges IMO to approve U.S. ECA application

In our new report, Protecting American Health from Global Shipping Pollution [PDF], Environmental Defense Fund and our partners — the American Lung Association, the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency — respectfully ask the IMO to grant the U.S. application for an ECA. 

The IMO will consider the request at the July 2009 meeting of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 59).  The IMO will make its final decision in 2010.       .

A U.S. ECA would dramatically cut ocean-going ship pollution

ECA standards would apply to all ships entering and exiting U.S. ports, including foreign-flag ships, which make 90 percent of all calls on U.S. ports.

When fully implemented in the U.S., the requirements for ship engines and fuel in the pollution-reduction area would cut:

  • smog-forming oxide of nitrogen (NOx) emissions by about 80 percent from current levels,
  • particulate pollution (PM) by approximately 85 percent and
  • sulfur oxides (SOx) by around 95 percent.

Sweeping clean air benefits for millions of Americans

An ECA would provide sweeping health benefits for millions of Americans. The map above (see larger, detailed version) depicts the estimated reductions in annual concentrations of harmful particulate pollution in 2020 if the U.S. were to establish an ECA for the entire coastline of the U.S. mainland.

ECAs require fuel to be over 60 percent cleaner than the global average by 2010 and 96 percent cleaner in 2015, resulting in emissions reductions far greater and faster than global standards would require.

Every state in the lower 48 would benefit from an improvement in air quality if large ocean-going ships in U.S. waters met the rigorous pollution control standards that would be required in an ECA — even land-locked states. And in some metropolitan areas, like Houston, the expected reductions could mean the difference between meeting and not meeting the health-based federal clean air standards.

Ocean-going ships are big sources of air pollution

Ocean-going ships like cruise ships, container ships and tankers carry passengers and cargo all over the world. These ships are critical to global trade and our national economy. But besides delivering goods and people, these large ships deliver air pollution. Today the use of ocean-going ships to transport freight is on the rise, and nearly all the ships are powered by diesel engines.

Diesel pollution is one of the most dangerous and pervasive sources of air pollution in the U.S. These floating smokestacks churn out a noxious brew of pollutants that contribute to a host of ill health effects, ranging from respiratory problems to premature death (see health threats from diesel). Shipping-related PM emissions contribute to approximately 60,000 global deaths annually, with impacts concentrated in coastal regions on major trade routes.

Pollution from ships contributes to unhealthy air

Ocean-going ships  are a significant source of air pollution across America. EPA estimates that in 2001, ocean-going ships in the U.S. emitted:

  • as much oxides of nitrogen (NOx, a key ingredient of ozone smog) as put out by 94 coal-fired power plants (an estimated 745,000 tons).
  • as much particulate pollution (sometimes called soot) as is emitted from 117 coal-fired power plants (more than 54,000 tons).
  • 40 percent of all mobile source sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions.

Our 2008 report Floating Smokestacks: A Call for Action to Clean Up Marine Shipping Pollution [PDF] shows the growing public health threat of these vessels.

Large ships pollute as much as millions of new cars

Another way to grasp the amount of smog-forming pollution that these large ships produce is to look at their emissions in major ports and compare the numbers with new automobiles meeting today's emissions standards.

  Pollution produced by large ships
Los Angeles/Long Beach equivalent to 11,000,000 new cars
Seattle/Tacoma equivalent to 13,300,000 new cars
Houston/Galveston equivalent to 6,000,000 new cars
Lower Mississsippi equivalent to 18,100,000 new cars
Great Lakes equivalent to 590,000 new cars
New York/New Jersey equivalent to 7,800,000 new cars

Marine shipping is a huge global warming emitter

Ocean-going vessels are also responsible for 3 percent of global warming emissions worldwide (an estimated 912 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas). In U.S. waters alone, these vessels emitted about 55.6 million metric tons of CO2 2006.

The global shipping industry as a whole accounts for more annual greenhouse gas emissions than almost any individual nation in the world. Only the United States, China, Russia, India and Japan emit more carbon dioxide than the global marine shipping fleet.

October 2008 meeting resulted in more protective rules

In October 2008, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) updated the clean air provisions (Annex VI) of the MARPOL treaty to be more protective. (MARPOL is the international treaty for preventing pollution from ocean-going ships.)

The new standards require modest global reductions in:

  • oxides of nitrogen (NOx),
  • particulate pollution (PM), and
  • sulfur oxides (SOx) pollution.

They also put in place the framework for more rigorous reductions to be made in ECAs. 

To ensure that an ECA is put in place for ocean-going ships in U.S. waters, Environmental Defense Fund and our partner organizations respectfully call on the IMO to approve the U.S. application.  The application for stronger standards will be on the table at the July 2009 meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC59).

Working together, from the local level to the international level, we can achieve cleaner, healthier air by reducing ship and port-related pollution.

Download full report and executive summary