The Ministry of Health has repeated its call for the Government to speed up the country’s move to cleaner shipping fuels, saying the delays come at the “expense of the health of New Zealanders”.
Ministry population health deputy director-general Deborah Woodley called for immediate accession to Annex VI of Marpol, the International Maritime convention for the prevention of pollution from ships, saying Picton and Wellington were bearing the brunt of the delays.
In her submission to the Environment Select Committee in March, Woodley highlighted the air quality improvement around the Port of Tauranga since international shipping fleets reduced toxic fumes in January this year.
This was not the case in Picton, which serves a primarily domestic fleet, including the inter-island ferries.
Cook Strait ferries were responsible for more port calls in Picton and Wellington than international shipping in all ports around New Zealand, the submission said.
The Government plans to join Annex VI of Marpol by November 2021, but the Ministry of Health has called for immediate accession, rather than delaying the move “to manage fuel price fluctuations”.
Ministry of Transport environment, emissions and adaptation manager Glen-Marie Burns said before New Zealand could ratify the treaty, they must make changes to domestic legislation.
“We estimated it would take approximately 18 months to align our domestic legislation …”
They advised Cabinet that November 2021 was “the earliest timeframe” that they could accede.
Annex VI obligations would come into effect three months later.
More stringent Annex VI regulations took effect globally on January 1, 2020, when the sulphur limit of 3.5 per cent by mass for marine fuels dropped to 0.5 per cent.
All ships ‘flagged’ to Annex VI party states visiting New Zealand had to comply, but domestic ships, including Cook Strait ferries, were not yet bound by the regulations.
The implementation of Marpol Annex VI abroad had shown up in improved air quality monitoring near the Port of Tauranga, which served a mainly international shipping fleet, Woodley said in her submission.
Air quality monitoring in January 2020 showed a “significant reduction” in concentrations of sulphur dioxide compared with January 2019.
She understood there had been similar reductions in other international shipping ports around New Zealand.
“However, this is not the case for Picton which serves primarily domestic shipping,” Woodley said.
There were two main reasons why the Ministry of Health supported New Zealand’s immediate accession to Annex VI, she said.
“Reduced emissions of harmful air pollutants will result in reduced adverse public health effects and costs, including premature deaths in New Zealand.
“Accession to Annex VI provides New Zealand with a tangible action to combat climate change.”
Picton marine and environmental engineer Brent Yardley has been publicly calling for New Zealand to join Annex VI since 2018.
“It goes without saying that the regulation process has been extraordinarily slow,” he said.
“The Ministry of Health asked for immediate accession early in 2019 and have repeated that call again this year. Others have lobbied the Ministry of Transport to act since at least 2016,” Yardley said.
“Is it reasonable to take years implementing rules that are standard virtually everywhere else?” he said.
“And is it reasonable to ignore the risk to public health in the meantime? I don’t think it is.
“It is abundantly clear that pollution is a serious health risk. Why we can’t sensibly manage pollution, on the other hand, is not so clear.”
New Zealand and Mexico were the only two countries in the OECD not signed up to the agreement requiring ships to run on cleaner fuel.
Strait NZ, which owns Bluebridge ferries, said they supported New Zealand’s accession, in particular for reducing the impact on human health and environments in port communities from maritime pollution.
However, Bluebridge outlined their concerns saying the options available to comply were “limited and come with significant costs”.
“This will have flow-on effects for Bluebridge’s commercial freight and passenger customers and, in respect of commercial freight, flow-on effects for the end consumers of those services,” the submission said.
