Tomorrow will enter into force the Area of Control of the Emissions of the Mediterranean Sea for sulphur oxides, introducing limits to the emissions of the marine transport more stringent than the global ones, imposing to the ships the use of fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 0.1% regarding the total one of 0,5%. The Mediterranean will become the fifth ECA area for sulphur oxides in the world after those of the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Channel, North America and Hawaii, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The agreement to further protect the marine environment of the Mediterranean by establishing an Emission Control Area was reached by the EU and the Mediterranean countries under the United Nations Barcelona Convention in 2021. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) welcomed the call for designation in 2022. In April the IMO approved the creation of a North-East Atlantic Emission Control Area to reduce both sulphur and nitrogen oxides, whose adoption is expected by the end of the year and will enter into force in 2027. It will include EU coastal states, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Iceland and the United Kingdom.