The Clean Shipping Alliance (CSA) 2020 announced that it has appointed Ian Adams as its Executive Director. The alliance has also contracted Maritime AMC (MAMCL), a UK-based association management company, to provide secretariat services.
Commenting on recent media reports concerning open-loop scrubbers, Ian Adams said that there has been a lot of loose speculation about the environmental benefits of scrubbers, something that hides the fact that scrubbers have a very positive net environmental impact on the maritime environment.
We are deeply concerned that decisions are being made without the benefit of existing academic studies and research or any knowledge of the performance of these systems
Mr. Adams explained that scrubbers can be very positive for the port and ocean environment, as they can improve shipping’s environmental footprint and reduce the health impact from airborne sources.
He also believes that the early installers of scrubber technologies will at some point be considered visionary.
In a recent development, BIMCO informed that Chinese regulators have updated part of its domestic emission control area (DECA) regulations, which apply from 1 January 2019. However, they have not yet placed a full ban on open-loop scrubbers.
The banned areas for discharging wastewater from scrubbers remain within inland ECAs, port waters under coastal DECA and the Bohai Bay waters only.
Nevertheless, a full ban on open-loop scrubbers could be adopted soon.
