A Chinese-led study has shown that a boom in shipping is worsening air pollution in China and other East Asian nations, leading to a high number of deaths per year.
In the Nature Climate Change published study ‘Health and Climate Impacts of Ocean-Going Vessels in East Asia’, scientists revealed that ship traffic has more than doubled off East Asia since 2005, leading to an increase in the pollution that reaches inland. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) has been estimated to cause around 24,000 premature deaths a year in East Asia, largely from lung diseases and cancer, in addition to the impacts that it has on the environment from the generation of acid rain.
Using satellite data that tracked around 19,000 vessels, the scientists were able to estimate that three-quarters of deaths were in China, and others mainly in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea. The study also found that emissions of carbon dioxide from shipping off East Asia had doubled in less than a decade to 16% of the global total from the industry in 2013.
Controls on pollution limits are in place, including current Emission Control Areas (ECAs) present in Europe and North America, and more recently the Chinese Yangtze River Delta ECA that allows a maximum 0.5% sulphur fuel to be burnt by ships while at berth. China will also start demanding cleaner fuels for ships in coastal regions from 2019. China has thousands of protests every year sparked by concerns about environmental degradation.
From 2020 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will implement a global 0.5% global sulphur cap to limit the effect such emissions have on people and the environment. However, this may be pushed back to 2025 if Member States decide that refineries are unable to adapt in time.
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