page_title: Emission Control Area
section_title: SOx emissions control
hierarchical_section_title: Emission Control Area / SOx emissions control
caption_attribution_description: English: Ship Maneuvering out of Port S.Louis du Rhone, near Marseilles.
context_page_description: Emission Control Areas, or Sulfur Emission Control Areas, are sea areas in which stricter controls were established to minimize airborne emissions from ships as defined by Annex VI of the 1997 MARPOL Protocol.
  The emissions specifically include SOx, NOx, ODSs and VOCs and the regulations came into effect in May 2005. Annex VI contains provisions for two sets of emission and fuel quality requirements regarding SOx and PM, or NOx, a global requirement and more stringent controls in special Emission Control Areas. The regulations stems from concerns about "local and global air pollution and environmental problems" in regard to the shipping industry's contribution. In July 2010, a revised more stringent Annex VI was enforced in the Emission Control Areas with significantly lowered emission limits.
  As of 2011 there were four existing ECAs: the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the North American ECA, including most of US and Canadian coast and the US Caribbean ECA. Also other areas may be added via protocol defined in Annex VI. ECAs with nitrogen oxides thresholds are denoted as Nitrogen Oxide Emission Control Areas.
context_section_description: The purpose of the protocol was to reduce and to control the emissions coming from the marine vessels’ exhausts that pollute the environment. MARPOL convinced IMO to control the average worldwide sulfur content fuels. The Annex states that a global cap is 4.5 %m/m on the sulfur content in fuel. However, MARPOL insist on it being 1.5 %m/m in some regions classified as “SOx Emission Control Areas” (SECAs). 
  On the other hand, MARPOL came up with a way to avoid using an exhaust gas cleaning systems or anything else that would limit SOx emissions. In fact, the exhaust gas cleaning systems must be approved by the State Administration before put into use. The regulations on the exhaust gas cleaning systems are to set by IMO.
  The monitoring of sulfur content of residual fuel supplied for use on board ships is being performed by IMO since 1999. The IMO monitors it by the bunker reports around the world. According to The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) the worldwide average sulfur content in fuel oils for 2004 was 2.67 %m/m.
caption: Ship Maneuvering out of Port S.Louis du Rhone, near Marseilles.
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