by Fredrik Fuglesang, CEO, SeaARCTOS

The Baltic Sea has a claim few other waters can make: it was the world's first Sulphur Emission Control Area, designated in 2006 and tightened to today's 0.10% limit in 2015.

Two decades on, that head start is about to matter more than ever.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted a new ECA for the North-East Atlantic, covering waters off Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Ireland, the UK, France, Spain, and Portugal, introducing the same cap limit from 2028 under Resolution MEPC.407(84).

It follows the Mediterranean, which became a 0.10% ECA in May last year, and the Canadian Arctic and Norwegian Sea, where that same limit kicks in from March 2027. Download PDF