The OSPAR Commission, composed of 15 governments and the European Union, has agreed to a historic phased ban on scrubber discharge waters in the North-East Atlantic, marking the first regional regulation of its kind. The decision was made at the OSPAR Ministerial Meeting in June 2025, with ministers expressing concerns about hazardous discharges from exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) on ships, particularly in coastal zones.

The fifteen Governments are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

The ban will be implemented in two stages: discharges from open-loop scrubbers will be prohibited starting in July 2027, followed by a ban on closed-loop scrubber discharges in January 2029. The restrictions will apply to ports and inland waters across the North-East Atlantic region.

Scrubbers are systems used by ships to reduce sulfur emissions from exhaust gases. While open-loop scrubbers discharge large volumes of wash water directly into the ocean, closed-loop scrubbers produce lower volumes but more concentrated waste.
The move comes as several individual countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, have already implemented their own national bans on scrubber discharges.

Source: West of England