On the morning of June 24, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Vice Minister of Transportation Zhao Chongjiu and relevant officials of Kunming City, Yunnan Province introduced the development of the water transportation field and the progress of preparations for the 2021 China Navigation Day, and answered questions from reporters.
Cao Desheng, Director of the Maritime Safety Administration of the Ministry of Transport: Thank you for your concern for the water transportation industry and for your questions. As we all know, water transportation is an important part of our comprehensive transportation system. Generally speaking, water transportation has the comparative advantages of large transportation capacity, low unit transportation cost, low energy consumption and less pollution. At present, most of our ships use traditional power fuels, that is, fossil energy fuels. When these fuels are burned, they will produce air pollutants such as sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter, which will have a certain impact on air quality. Especially in port cities, if there are many large ships docking, the impact on the air quality of the local area is still relatively large. In order to implement the deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on accelerating the construction of ecological civilization, fighting the tough battle of pollution prevention and control, and winning the battle to defend the blue sky, and to promote the development of green shipping and the energy conservation and emission reduction of ships, the Ministry of Transport has successively issued the “Air Pollution of Ships”. The Implementation Plan for the Emission Control Area and the Implementation Plan for the Global Shipping Fuel Sulfur Restriction Order in 2020 will promote the implementation of relevant requirements for the prevention and control of air pollution from ships through measures such as improving the management system, strengthening monitoring and supervision, and promoting fuel supply guarantees. The International Shipping Organization’s global use of low-sulfur fuel oil and the global control of air pollution emissions from ships will be implemented on January 1, 2019. Our country has been implemented one year ahead of schedule, and it will be implemented in 2018, which is at the forefront of the world. The main work includes several aspects:
One is to further improve the monitoring and supervision system. We have issued the “Guidelines for the Supervision and Administration of Air Pollutant Emissions from Ships”, which instructs maritime administrations at all levels to supervise and inspect the quality of marine fuel oil for ships calling at ports, and investigate and punish ships using substandard fuel oil in accordance with laws and regulations.
The second is to guide maritime administrations at all levels to strengthen supervision. We strived for financial support, set up special funds for ship pollution prevention testing, completed the construction of rapid detection equipment for marine fuel sulfur content in the national maritime system, and distributed rapid fuel detection equipment for grass-roots maritime management agencies. Because we want to force the use of low-sulfur fuel oil, but low-sulfur fuel oil has a certain impact on shipping costs, some ships are reluctant to use it in order to save fuel costs.
The third is to promote the supply guarantee of marine low-sulfur fuel oil. Promote the relevant departments to implement the export tax rebate policy for fuel oil filled by international shipping ships in my country’s coastal ports. After the implementation of the global mandatory use of low-sulfur oil, the supply of low-sulfur oil has indeed encountered certain problems, especially the production of low-sulfur oil in our country. In this regard, relevant work has been promoted and specific tax rebate measures have been implemented. In addition, actively implement the requirements of “Internet + Supervision”, and launch a unified national fuel reporting information system. While effectively strengthening the supervision of air pollution from ships, it also safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of shipping companies.
The fourth is to strengthen the supervision of the use of ship exhaust after-treatment devices and the use of clean energy. As we all know, the entire source of pollution is the exhaust emissions from ships. Just like the pollution from automobile exhaust emissions, exhaust monitoring is a very important regulatory measure. To implement the special rectification and long-term mechanism plan for the outstanding pollution problems of ships and ports in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, we vigorously promote the use of shore power by ships in accordance with laws and regulations. The source of air pollution caused by ships has been cut off. This work has been advanced in a very orderly manner in recent years.
In the next step, we will continue to strengthen the capacity building of monitoring and supervision, strictly implement regulations and policies related to air pollution emissions from ships, improve the collection mechanism of ship energy consumption data, adapt to the development of new water-related business technologies, and promote batteries, clean fuels, and renewable energy. The application on ships, actively build a green shipping maritime governance demonstration area, guide ships to use clean, green, and low-carbon energy, and promote institutional and technical emission reductions.
