WHAT is the government doing to reduce the number of disastrous oil spills that regularly occur in British waters? David Jamieson, the Department for Transport’s shipping minister with responsibility for marine pollution policies, reckons that for a start, single-hull tankers should be phased out.
Following the loss of the Erika in 1999, the UK negotiated for the phasing out of the most vulnerable single-hull tankers by 2007. “We also want to control the movement of heavy oil in such vessels to and from the European Union’s ports,” said Jamieson. This year, the UK and five other EU member states pushed for the International Maritime Organization to establish a new “Particularly Sensitive Sea Area” (PSSA). This would stretch from the Shetland Islands in the north to the Portuguese coast in the south, extending eastwards to include the English Channel. It would include a substantial proportion of the UK’s seas and coasts, although the Irish Sea and much of the east coast of England and Scotland would be beyond its scope. The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee approved the PSSA in principle in July. The government hopes the IMO will adopt the PSSA by late 2004, and require all tankers carrying heavy-grade oils to declare their cargo if they want to enter a PSSA.
I am glad to hear that later in the year the government is to publish a report on “Marine Environment High Risk Areas”. These combine both high environmental sensitivity and a high level of shipping risk. According to Jamieson, the government will outline the proposed IMO routeing measures in the context of these areas.
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IF FUTURE summer heatwaves match this year’s scorcher, it will have huge implications for farming on both sides of the Atlantic (91av, 23 August, p 5). In dry areas, higher temperatures and increased water shortages are likely to slash maize and wheat yields, while elsewhere the warmer weather could enhance beet crops. I asked Elliot Morley, the minister for environment and agri-environment, what research the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs supports on climate change and farming.
Morley replied that DEFRA continues to back the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations Research Programme focuses on the potential effects of climate change on agriculture and seeks to identify what practical measures could be taken to mitigate them. One major project focuses on the effects of the unusually hot and dry summer of 1995, which is thought to reflect the sort of change likely to occur in the UK. In particular, the project is reviewing the effects that summer had on crop yields, livestock production and the costs of production. It also aims to identify which sectors benefited under these conditions, and those where profitability was reduced.
According to Morley, DEFRA aims to raise awareness of climate change among farmers and land managers through relevant reports and initiatives, such as the UK Climate Impacts Programme and the Rural Climate Change Panel. For further information, see and .
