The environmental situation in the Baltic Sea is drastically worsened in recent years, and the shipping industry is one of several contributors to local pollution, particularly in terms of NOx, SOx, and particle emissions. During 2010, DNV has done a study for the heads of state surrounding the Baltic Sea to assess how the shipping industry can contribute to improve the environmental situation in the area. The study summarizes IMOs new emission requirements for Emission Control Areas (ECA), and concludes that the impact these requirements has for ship owners is that they need to do one of three measures with their existing fleets: install exhaust gas cleaning systems, switch to low sulphur fuels, or switch to LNG. The study further concludes that LNG offers the best environmental and economic performance of these alternative measures.

One of the key messages in the report is that there exists almost no infrastructure for distributing LNG to ships, so Governments in the area are encouraged to support and give incentives for establishing such infrastructure. Judging from the level of interest for this topic in the Baltic Sea area, we are optimistic that infrastructure will develop fast.