Coastal State vs. Flag State: Countries' Mitigation of Environmental Harm from Scrubbers?

This research argues that countries should adopt unified regulations regarding the release of the wash water from the Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems in their port, territorial, and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Ships use scrubbers to decrease their greenhouse gases emission in order to comply with the International Maritime Organization sulphur content of ships' fuel limit. In January 2020, the global upper limit reached 0.5%. Ships release scrubbers' wash water (SWW) into the sea. The SWW includes toxic materials. The 2008 and 2015 Guidelines for the Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems regulates the level of the SWW. However, there is uncertainty related to the SWW harm to the marine environment and human health. This uncertainty reflects as well on the national level. Currently, countries fall under one of three main categories. The first is countries that adopt a complete ban against using scrubbers in their territorial water, such as Egypt and Qatar. The second is countries that partially ban the use of scrubbers. The second form is a ban against the type of the discharge/disposal from open loop discharge (Argentina, China, and France). The third type is countries that do not regulate the discharge of scrubbers. Hence, this research is divided into three Parts. After a brief Introduction, Part II tackles who bears the responsibility to investigate environmental harm, especially the transboundary harm of the scrubbers' wash water. Part III deals with the legal models that are adopted by the national regulations related to SWW. These models are (1) limited ban, versus unlimited ban, (2) specific regulations, versus general regulations, and finally (3) binding, versus non-binding regulations. Part IV deals with the solution to the uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]