Monitoring emissions from ships – from high in the sky!

30.05.2024

Great news ! MUMM’s monitoring programme for SOx and NOx emissions of ships at sea, part of our aerial surveillance, is a finalist for the hashtagGreeningAwardInitiative of the European Maritime Safety Agency. Award Initiative, jointly organised with Frontex and the European Fisheries Control Agency, celebrates the sustainability actions of authorities performing coast guard functions in the EU.

This monitoring programme is successful thanks to good cooperation with the Belgian federal North Sea Cabinet, which ensures legal anchoring, and with the Directorate General Shipping, which organizes the follow-up of suspicious SOx and NOx values on land.

Since 2015, the Royal Belgian 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.

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%.