Shipping and Air Pollution: New Zealand's Failure to Ratify MARPOL Annex VI

• Author: Bevan Marten
• Position: School of Law, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
• Pages: 90-98

(2016) 30 ANZ Mar LJ

90

SHIPPING AND AIR POLLUTION: NEW ZEALAND’S FAILURE TO RATIFY

MARPOL ANNEX VI

Dr Be va n Marten*

1 Introduction

The global conversation around the amount of pollutants that enter earth’s atmosphere is impossible to ignore,

and shipping-related emissions are no exception. Whether the focus is on public health impacts in coastal

settlements, or broader concerns connected with greenhouse gases and climate change, the maritime tra nsport

sector will inevitably face closer scrutiny over how ships are fuelled and operated over the course of this century.

This article focuses in on New Zealand’s lack of engagement with this i ssue, and in particular its omission to

ratify Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).1 The

country’s failure to address shipping emissions has made it a real outlier internationally, and raises important

policy questions connected with international shipping regulation. The aims of this article are first, at the

international level, to provide an illustration o f a form of “negative” State practice in this field, in this instance a

State’s decision not to e ngage with an aspect of widely-accepted international maritime law. Here New Zealand

provides a useful example of the challenges faced by those who seek to improve environmental and regulatory

standards by way of uniform international law. Second, at the domestic level, the article attempts to refute the

reasons given for New Zealand’s position, and to help steer this matter on to New Zealand’s legislative agenda.

2 MARPOL Annex VI

The importance of regulating vessel emissions is illustrated by Cullinane and Bergqvist in the following terms,

highlighting the fact that even the most modern marine engines produce a high level of emissions relative to road

transport:2

The vast majority (95%) of the world’s shipping fleet runs on diesel. However, the diesel used in ships (usually

referred to as bunker oil) is much lower quality than that used in road vehicles. Bunker fuel is much cheaper as it is

virtually a waste product of the standard oil refining process. It is a cross between a solid and a liquid that is too

thick for road vehicles – it is literally ‘the bottom of the barrel’.

Although the prevention of shipping-related pollution has been a major international priority since the middle of

the twentieth century, the air pollution rules that became Annex VI of MARPOL were not agreed to until 1997.

These provisions entered into force in 2005 and, following a rocky start and subsequent amendment in 2008, have

been highl y successful at the global level.3 Annex VI currently has 86 States parties representing 95% of t he

world’s tonnage.4

Annex VI contains regulations dealing with ozone-depleting substances, sulphur oxides (‘SOX’), nitrogen oxides

(‘NOX’), volatile organic compounds from tankers, and shipboard incineration.5 The Annex sets out a testing and

certification regime,6 along with rules on fuel supplies and reception facilities, 7 and also provides for IMO-

designated emission control areas (such as the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and the North American seaboard).8 This

article will primarily focus on the SOX and NOX aspects of the Annex.

* School of Law, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

1 International Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973 as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto (MARPOL),

opened for signature 2 November 1973 and 17 February 1978 respectively, 1340 UNTS 62 (entered into force 2 October 1983); Protocol of

1997 to Amend the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as Modified by the Protocol of 1978 Relating

Thereto (MARPOL Annex VI), opened for signature 26 September 1997 (entered into force 19 May 2005). Technically New Zealand would

accede to the Annex – the country was not one of the Protocol’s original signatories.

2 Kevin Cullinane and Rickard Bergqvist, ‘Emission Control Areas and their Impact on Maritime Transport’ (2014) 28 Transportation

Research Part D 1, 1.

3 For the background to these developments within the IMO see: James Harrison, ‘Recent Developments and Continuing Challenges in the

Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from International Shipping’ (2012) 27 Ocean Yearbook 359; Sherry P Broder and Jon M Van

Dyke, ‘The Urgency of Reducing Air Pollution from Global Shipping’ in Aldo Chircop et al (eds) The Regulation of International Shipping:

International and Comparative Perspectives (2012), 261-278.

4 International Maritime Organization (IMO), Summary of Status of Conventions (8 March 2016)

s/Default.aspx>.

5 MARPOL Annex VI, regs 12-16.

6 MARPOL Annex VI, regs 5-9.

7 MARPOL Annex VI, regs 17-18.

8 MARPOL Annex VI, regs 13.6 and 14.3.