Tag: marine environment

EMSA adopted an action plan for response to marine pollution during its Administrative Board, 37th Meeting held in Lisbon, Porugal, on 23-24 November 2013. EMSA's Action Plan covers the response to oil pollution caused by offshore installations. The response to pollution caused by gas installations is not addressed due to the particularities of such incidents. EMSA's expertise and response capabilities are primarily focused on oil pollution in the marine environment. Gas emissions may include liquid condensates, which evaporate into the atmosphere, with limited residues persisting on the water surface, meaning that on-site recovery is not feasible. However, gas plumes from gas installation incidents can pose a significant hazard to responders and EMSA will therefore explore monitoring options for oil and gas incidents, taking into consideration recent technological advances in this area. The Action Plan provides: an overview of international and regional regulatory and cooperation structures for pollution response, addressing offshore installations in particular; information regarding particularities and challenges of pollution caused by offshore installations and response measures to marine pollution caused by such installations, including some case studies; a brief overview of both Member States' and oil industry's preparedness and response activities regarding oil pollution caused by offshore installations; and ...

ICS, BIMCO, Intercargo, Intertanko, WSC have jointly made a submission to upcoming IMO Maritime Environment Protection Committee (IMO MEPC 66) to amend the Guidelines for approval of ballast water management systems in order to ensure success of the BWM Convention. The MEPC 66 will be held in IMO headquarters from 31 March 2014 to 4 April 2014. The authors suggest that the only way to satisfactorily address concerns regardinf the BWM Convention is to amend the G8 Guidelines to provide a robust and consistently applied testing protocol that will provide confidence that type approved treatment systems are 'fit for purpose'. The Convention provides a procedure for making changes to the guidelines in Regulation D-5 It is recommended that treatment systems should be subject to testing in all types and conditions of water normally encountered in world trade and any limitations discovered should be clearly identified. The current, recently revised, recommendatory procedures permit a treatment system to be tested only in high and medium salinity temperate water with the type approval certificate stating this; this does not provide any indication of the actual limitations of the system. The type approval Guidelines also need to be consistently applied and the legislation should be amended to achieve this without the ...

Transport Malta will collaborate with the Norwegian Coastal Administration to strengthen the country's maritime pollution response. During the launching of the project "Oil / HNS Spill Response Capacity Building For The Protection Of Malta's Seas", Transport and Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi, said that the undertaking, supported through grants from the European Economic Area, aims to address our island's capacity building in the field of maritime incident response, particularly spills from oil and other hazardous and noxious substances. Through this project, Transport Malta will have the distinction to share the Norwegian partner's vast experience in this field. "There is no doubt that the Norwegian Coastal Administration is the ideal partner to enhance Malta's response to maritime pollution," Minister Mizzi said. It is a well known fact that there is heavy maritime traffic in the Malta Channel, with approximately 25% of the world's oil transport passing through the Central Mediterranean. Therefore, a particular level of national preparedness against oil spills and other hazardous and noxious substances is crucial, in order to counteract any incidents that may potentially arise and affect our seas, shores and potentially our economy. Minister Mizzi added that one of the major objectives of the project is to increase the ...

A new action plan has been presented to facilitate the further development of the renewable ocean energy sector in Europe. A central element in this action plan will be to establish an Ocean Energy Forum, bringing together stakeholders to build capacity and foster cooperation. The action plan should help drive forward this nascent 'blue energy' sector towards full industrialisation. Ocean energy covers all technologies to harvest the renewable energy of our seas and oceans other than offshore wind. Its exploitation would contribute to the decarbonisation of the EU's economy and provide secure and reliable renewable energy to Europe. European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, said: "As our Blue Growth strategy highlights, seas and oceans have the potential to generate huge economic growth and much-needed jobs. By helping the ocean energy sector to fully develop we can fulfil this potential through innovation while also securing clean, renewable energy for Europe." European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger said: "Ocean energy has a significant potential to enhance the security of supply. This Communication aims to contribute to promote technological innovation and to reach the Objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy and beyond. Developing a wide portfolio of renewable energy sources ...