Assessing the costs and environmental benefits of IMO regulations of ship-originated SOx and NOx emissions in the Baltic Sea

Sari Repka; Anne Erkkilä-Välimäki; Jan Eiof Jonson; Maximilian Posch; Janne Törrönen; Jukka Pekka Jalkanen

doi:10.1007/s13280-021-01500-6

Assessing the costs and environmental benefits of IMO regulations of ship-originated SOx and NOx emissions in the Baltic Sea

Ambio. 2021 Sep;50(9):1718-1730. doi: 10.1007/s13280-021-01500-6. Epub 2021 Mar 7.

Authors

Sari Repka¹, Anne Erkkilä-Välimäki², Jan Eiof Jonson³, Maximilian Posch⁴, Janne Törrönen², Jukka Pekka Jalkanen⁵

Affiliations

¹ Brahe Centre, Centre for Maritime Studies, University of Turku, University of Turku, 20014, P.O. Box 181, 28101, Pori, Finland. sari.repka@utu.fi.
² Brahe Centre, Centre for Maritime Studies, University of Turku, University of Turku, 20014, P.O. Box 181, 28101, Pori, Finland.
³ Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Henrik Mohns plass 1, 0313, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), 2361, Laxenburg, Austria.
⁵ Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. Box 503, 00101, Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

To assess the value of the environmental benefits of the Sulphur Emission regulation (SECA) that came into force in 2015, changes in depositions of SOx and NOx from ship exhaust gas emissions were modelled and monetized for the Baltic Sea region for the years 2014 and 2016. During this period, the total deposition of SOx in the study area decreased by 7.3%. The decrease in ship-originated SOx deposition from 38 kt to 3.4 kt (by over 88%) was translated into a monetary value for the ecosystem impacts of nearly 130 million USD, according to the EcoValue08 model. This is less than the modelled health benefits, but it is not insignificant. For NOx, there was no decreasing trend. The exceedance of the critical loads of SOx and NOx was also estimated. The effect of Baltic shipping on the exceedance of critical loads of acidification after SECA is very small, but Baltic shipping still has a considerable effect on the exceedance of critical loads for eutrophication.

Keywords: Atmospheric deposition; Baltic Sea; Maritime traffic; Monetary valuation; NOx; SOx.

MeSH terms

Baltic States
Ecosystem*
Environmental Monitoring
Eutrophication
Ships*
Vehicle Emissions / analysis

Substances

Vehicle Emissions

Grants and funding

R1.074/interreg BSR