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The Director of Legal Affairs at the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, Bertrand Smith [pictured], has said that the country has an obligation to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to reduce the risk of an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from ships calling at Jamaican ports.

Speaking at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) think tank regarding Maritime Awareness Week (September 20-25), Smith said that Jamaica will need to implement the necessary legal and administrative framework to ensure that ships comply with International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards on greenhouse gas emissions.

Smith said that while ships account for only 2.7% of total global emissions, Jamaica was obliged to implement measures introduced by the IMO to further reduce harmful emissions from ships.

"As a coastal state, we encourage more ships to call at our ports. However, with more ships, we will be encouraging more greenhouse gases to be emitted in our area," he stated.

"We therefore have an obligation to ensure that we put in mechanisms, if possible, to reduce the risk of an increase in CO2 and other gases emitted by ships which call at our ports," he added.

Smith stressed that as a coastal state with 95 percent of its trade coming by sea, climate change will pose a challenge for Jamaica's maritime industry.

Commenting on the MARPOL convention, which deals with the regulation of air pollution and has been ratified by Jamaica, Smith said "What this protocol does is it ensures that bunkers that the ships use, have no more than 4.5% of sulphur content."

He added that the Maritime Authority of Jamaica is currently in discussions with local bunker suppliers including Petrojam Ltd, to ensure that the fuel supplied to ships meets the standard.

"This protocol allows countries to establish sulphur emission areas, whereby ships that go to these particular areas have to use fuel with 1.5% sulphur content."

"This ensures that the ship's emissions do not contribute to climate change," he said.