The environmental issue: hot topic or here to stay?
It used to be that we were inundated with newsworthy reports on security issues and the various programmes and schemes with interesting acronyms such as TWIC and CTPAT. The lesson there was that they all have a cost associated with them. Today, the port industry is embroiled in environmental issues, not so much pollution of the sea but emissions in the air. The worry is over sulphur particles emitted by ships in port as well as on the high seas. Air quality hit the headlines with Marpol 73/78 Annexe VI in 2005 and has become a major topic of debate and legislation since then. The state of California recently passed legislation that pushed its environmental standards into international waters (24 miles).
It used to be that we were inundated with newsworthy reports on security issues and the various programmes and schemes with interesting acronyms such as TWIC and CTPAT. The lesson there was that they all have a cost associated with them. Today, the port industry is embroiled in environmental issues, not so much pollution of the sea but emissions in the air. The worry is over sulphur particles emitted by ships in port as well as on the high seas. Air quality hit the headlines with Marpol 73/78 Annexe VI in 2005 and has become a major topic of debate and legislation since then. The state of California recently passed legislation that pushed its environmental standards into international waters (24 miles).