Hong Kong is to align itself with China’s new Emission Control Area (ECA) which is to be located in the Pearl River Delta that is to take effect from January 1, 2019.
The Pearl River Delta ECA area includes the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Bay regions within 12 nautical miles of the Chinese coastline. Fuel usage in the ECA will be limited to a maximum sulphur content of 0.5%.
Hong Kong will collaborate with the relevant mainland authorities to put the ECA in place and implement sulphur emissions controls.
Ships may either use a fuel with a sulphur content of less than 0.5% or implement abatement technologies, such as marine scrubbers, to clean the fuel so that sulphur emissions are limited to no more than this 0.5%.
This move by Hong Kong will help it to reduce its emissions further following a previous regulation that came into force on July 1, 2015, that stipulates that ships berthing at the port must emit fuel with no more than 0.5% sulphur content except during the first hour after arrival and the last hour before departure.
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