Published: Just now
Half of all ships in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea emit too much health-threatening nitrogen oxide, shows an EU project Sjöfartstidningen reports on.
Researchers suspect that the shipping companies are cheating.
The nitrogen oxide smoke from ships is dangerous for both the environment and health.
– A number of people will die a premature death or get asthma, says Johan Mellqvist, professor at Chalmers, to SVT Nyheter.
All ships built from 2021 must have engines that meet strict requirements for nitrogen oxide emissions. In the European research project Scipper, researchers have checked how the requirements are complied with. Ships plying the Baltic Sea and the North Sea have been measured using air gauges, aircraft and drones.
The technology is not perfect – the results can end up between 17 and 40 percent wrong – but many of the ships emitted more than twice the limit values, writes SVT.
– It could be cheating, that you ignore injecting so-called urea (liquid that cleans the exhaust gases) because you think it costs too much, says Johan Mellqvist to SVT.
In order to reduce emissions, the Swedish Transport Agency wants to investigate whether it is possible to introduce a fee for ships’ nitrogen emissions, says an environmental officer at the authority to SVT.