In the movie The Legend of 1900， the protagonist lives his entire life aboard a ship. A real-life parallel， Qin An， a crew member of “Flying Hero No.3” shuttling between Nanjing and Shanghai， is reluctant to ever set foot on land. “Ports such as Taizhou， Zhangjiagang， Nantong couldn’t be dirtier，”explains Qin. “The pollution is serious.”

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council （NRDC）， an American NGO， one medium or large ship burning fuel containing 3.5 percent sulfur operating one day at 70 percent capacity will emit as much PM2.5 as 500，000 vans fueled with Euro IV standard gasoline.

Oily Disaster

In 2012， Hong Kong’s statistics showed that ships were the primary emitter of the city’s PM10， NOx and SO2. About 30 percent of its PM10 and NOx， and 50 percent of SO2 came from ship exhaust. If a ship burns dirty fuel， the situation only worsens. A ship burning dirty fuel resembles a‘mobile power plant’ burning bad coal and without any sort of catalytic conversion equipment.

The International Maritime Organization’s （IMO） International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships requires oceanic vessels powered with petroleum-based fuel to use less than 3.5 percent sulfur， but this figure is already 700 times higher than the limit for Euro IV standard diesel.

IMO has set up four global emission control zones， in which ships should use cleaner fuel with less than one percent sulfur. In 2015， the figure will be further tightened to 0.1 percent. All four zones were established in bodies of water in Europe and the U.S. China enforces neither such restrictive zones nor national mandatory standards for ship fuel and emissions. Therefore， when some ships enter China’s territory， even though they have the ability to burn cleaner fuel， they choose high sulfur.

“Mobile power plants” include not only oceanic vessels but also inland ships. About 90 percent of Chinese ships are inland vessels out of the jurisdiction of international maritime organizations. So the fuel they use often comes from unqualified refineries and contains more sulfur.

For one journey to Shanghai， Qin An’s ship burns seven to eight tons of fuel. Quality diesel costs about 2，100 yuan （US$336） per ton. Darker， dirtier-looking fuel costs only 700 yuan （US$112） per ton. As a result， inland ships， especially private ships“are never picky about oil” according to Qin. Exhaust from burning quality fuel appears gray， almost cyan， but exhaust from dirty oil appears as black as coal.

Smokestacks of cranes and trucks are another contributor to port pollution. Additionally， unloading cement， sand and coal raises dust. In comparison， the air aboard ships is better.

Emissions Lists

“We have too little information about pollution from ships，” remarks Ding Yan， deputy director of Vehicle Emission Control Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. “The urgent task is compiling a ship emissions list， especially for coastal cities.”

Wu Jiaying， research director of Civic Exchange， a Hong Kong-based independent non-profit think tank， believes that only when governments define ships’ emission volumes and distribution can they effectively manage pollution. In 2007， Wu led Hong Kong’s ship emission list-making. Accordingly， Hong Kong evaluated the impacts on health caused by ship exhaust and the effects of various control measures.

On China’s mainland， only Shanghai has issued an emissions list. But as the largest port in the world， Shanghai covered only two percent of ships passing through its ports with the list. In addition， international studies primarily focus on large intercontinental vessels， so there is little precedence for China on how to manage its wide array of diverse river ships.

Chinese scholars have to independently compile emissions lists for river ships. Since 2012， Ge Yunshan， Professor at Beijing Institute of Technology， and her team have begun to perform monitoring on the Grand Canal （also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal） and the Yangtze and Pearl rivers. However， few ships voluntarily cooperate with the team. For example， ferries rest at the dock for only ten minutes， not long enough to install monitoring equipment. Monitoring discharges from ships is much harder than automobiles. “To test a car’s emissions， you must first determine how to drive the car，” explains Tan Jianwei， a member of the team， “but as for ship， its course and speed are decided by the captain.”

Pollution Growth

In recent years， Wu Jiaying has become acutely aware of the mainland’s increasing focus on ship-produced pollution. China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection， Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department and Hong Kong Polytechnic University jointly hold a biennial seminar concerning vehicular exhaust control. In 2014， half of the fours days of meetings focused on ships. Wu Jiaying clearly remembers that in one discussion， although eight speakers hailed from different interest groups such as government authorities， colleges and oil companies， all of them expressed desire to promote pollution management in the Pearl River Delta. Improving the situa- tion should not be difficult. According to a“white paper” from NRDC， in 2013， action plans for air pollution prevention and control issued by Shanghai， Jiangsu， Shandong and Guangdong all included regulation of ships and ports.

Guangdong’s Shenzhen City enacted even more specific rules. And previously in Hong Kong， fuel quality was left up to choice， with only a government incentive to use cleaner fuel， but now low sulfur fuel is required by law. Still， both Shenzhen and Hong Kong worry that excessive environmental regulation will affect their shipping industry： Ships can choose other， lessrestrictive ports. So， the Hong Kong government has consistently pushed for the estab- lishment of an emissions control zone in the Pearl River Delta to regulate every port in the area. Hong Kong is still concerned that once the zone is set up， ships will just be driven to the Yangtze River Delta or Bohai Rim region.

“Air pollution also damages regional competiveness，” opines Feng Shuhui， counselor of port projects at NRDC. “The reason Hong Kong is working to actively improve its air quality is partially because of the presence of international companies. If air pollution worsens， it’s harder for those companies to transfer or hire senior executives. Some companies have even moved their Asian headquarters out of Hong Kong.”