The monitoring programme of the Institute of Natural Sciences for SOx and NOx emissions of ships at sea, part of the aerial surveillance, is a finalist for the Greening Award Initiative of the European Maritime Safety Agency.
The Greening Award Initiative is jointly organised with Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency) and the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) and celebrates the sustainability actions of authorities performing coast guard functions in the EU.
Since 2015, the Institute of Natural Sciences, using funding from the Connecting Europe Facility programme, has equipped the Belgian coastguard aircraft with a sniffer sensor to measure ship emissions of ocean-going vessels at sea.
This monitoring programme is successful thanks to good cooperation with the Minister of the North Sea who, among other things, provided the NOx sensor, and with the Directorate General Shipping, which organizes the follow-up of suspicious SOx and NOx values on land.
The aircraft now monitors for CO2, SO2, NOx, and black carbon, and the reports from its sniffer operations mean that port state control inspection efficiency has improved by over 50%.
Find out more about the programme at https://tinyurl.com/vkkzjr8k.