China’s three busy water areas have shown important reductions in ship emissions, already by 2015, as vessels that voyage in these three areas were obliged to stricter emissions limits, according to Xinhua. The ministry in December 2015 set up ship emission control zones in the three water bodies in a drive to improve air quality, particularly in port cities in the zones.
Specifically, vessels in Bohai Sea area, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta that emit oxysulfide and other fuels, were 33% and 22% less than those of 2015, according to Cao Desheng, director of the maritime affairs bureau of the Ministry of Transport.
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In addition, the lower reductions were accomplished by cutting vessels’ fuel consumption and pollution in the regions.
A new regulation, that was issued in November 2018, expanded the zones to encompass all of China’s coastal regions and the main streams of the Yangtze River and the Xijiang River, a river in the Pearl River system. It also requires ships in those regions to use fuels with lower sulfur content.
Concluding, all three water bodies lie in the same areas as China’s three urban agglomerations and industrial powerhouses, which have been wrestling with air pollution generated by their booming industrial and transport sectors.
