Hong Kong will be introducing its own regulation to require vessels using Hong Kong waters to use cleaner fuel from January 2019, complementing the efforts under the PRC’s Ministry of Transport’s action plan for the Hong Kong, Macau and PRD (Pearl River Delta), reports UK P&I Club. “A Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong” was published in March 2013, being the first document issued by the Environment Bureau (ENB) which set out an emission control plan to improve the air quality in Hong Kong, Macau and PRD.
The plan looked into emission levels and set out the emission reduction targets for various sectors, including road, marine, power plants and non-road mobile machinery. The ENB and the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) of Hong Kong updated their publication on “Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong 2013-2017 Progress Report” in June 2017, devoting five pages to marine and revealing stricter controls measure for Hong Kong’s air quality and its future plans. From January 1st 2019 vessels trading within the PRD Domestic Emission Control Areas (DECA) will be required to run on low-sulphur fuel with the sulphur content not exceeding 0.5%, although, the penalty for violating the 0.5% requirement has not yet been specified.