BPO held a seminar: SECA today - challenges of tomorrow

The seminar was a part of the Transport Week 2016 event, being held at the University of Gdansk. The panel featured speakers from European Maritime Safety Agency, two shipping lines: DFDS and Finnlines as well as from academia. The event was attended by professionals from ports and maritime industries, researchers, media. 

Ioannis Mispinas from European Maritime Safety Agency gave a comprehensive report on the monitoring and implementation of the Sulphur Directive in EU countries and highlighted the role EMSA plays in the whole process. According to data from THETIS-S system, collecting results from all EU member states, there were around 6800 inspections in all EU countries in year 2015. Nearly 1800 were carried out in the Baltic Sea Region and 50 out of this number were found to be non-compliant (less than 3%). Issues with log books, change-over and fuel were the most common reasons for a non-compliant rating.

Poul Woodwall, the Director for Environment and Sustainability at DFDS Seaways, spoke about the implementation of MRV Regulation and whether it can build upon previous experiences with SECA. The MRV Regulation requires large ships (over 5 000 gross tonnes) calling at EU ports from 1 January 2018 to collect and later publish verified annual data on CO2 emissions and other relevant information. He outlined key differences between the two initiatives, among them the varying difficulty in policing and their geographical reach. What followed was an evaluation of the implementation process of the SECA directive and a brief explanation of ins and outs of the MRV regulation. Poul Woodwall finished his presentation with the big question: what is it all going to be used for?

Staffan Herlin, the Head of Group Marketing and Sales at Finnlines, showcased in detail his company’s environmental policy. He gave a rundown of environmental requirements for maritime transport and the costs they are associated with. The company invested heavily in scrubbers as the main compliance strategy. Staffan Herlin also underlined that recently shipping companies operate in a very uncertain business environment caused by slow economic recovery, an imbalance in export/import volumes, fuel prices and the situation in Russia.  

According to assessment presented by Monika Rozmarynowska-Mrozek, a researcher from Gdynia Maritime Academy, majority of vessels sailing in the SECA zone is using MDO fuel. However, the scrubber technology is also a solution used by many ship-owners especially in the ro-ro and ferry sectors. Recently there are nearly 80 vessels with scrubbers installed within the European SECA.

Bogdan Ołdakowski, BPO Secretary General said: “BPO is carrying out a study on consequences of the EU Sulphur directive. The seminar gave a substantial input for the report that we will publish in April. The report will give a comprehensive assessment of the impact SECA had during the one year after its implementation.”

Seminar presentations:

                                                    Introduction
Bogdan Ołdakowski,  Secretary General, Baltic Ports Organization

                                                     Can MRV implementation learn from our SECA experience?
Poul Woodwall, Director Environment & Sustainability, DFDS Seaways

                                                    Monitoring of the implementation of Sulphur Directive in EU countries – how is it going?
Ioannis Mispinas, Project Officer for Environmental Protection, EMSA

                                                    Running a ro-ro and ferry business under the new emission rules – experience from Finnlines
Staffan Herlin, Head of Group Marketing and Sales, Finnlines

                                                  EU Sulphur Directive – a year after the entry into force. How ship-owners are meeting new regulation?
Monika Rozmarynowska-Mrozek, Assistant at Gdynia Maritime University, Researcher at Baltic Ports Organization

For more info about Transport Week 2016, please click here.