Global 'laggards’: NZ loiters on pollution as cruise numbers boom

New Zealand has still not signed an international agreement regulating air pollution from ships, one of three out of 30 countries failing to do so, says a prominent scientist.

New Zealand, Mexico and Israel are the only coastal OECD countries that have not ratified the international treaty, said Dr Andrew Jeffs, a University of Auckland ecologist consulted by the Ministry of Transport on it, along with 48 other individuals and companies.

“90% of OECD countries have signed up for it, and New Zealand is an outlier, which is really odd,” said Jeffs.

“We’re supposed to be a green country with an interest in protecting the environment.”

Cruise ship passenger numbers have risen 24% this year according to a Statistics New Zealand report released this weekend.

Jeffs says most cruise companies are based in countries which have signed the treaty, but any ship carrying fuel not approved by the UN can be in New Zealand waters, potentially releasing more sulphur dioxide into our air.

“It seems odd that we’re international laggards, when it’s signing up to something that so many other countries have signed up to.”

The Cabinet has yet to discuss the treaty, said Tom Forster, the Manager of International Connections at the Ministry of Transport.

“The Ministry of Transport will shortly submit a paper to Cabinet that considers New Zealand’s potential accession [to the treaty],” he said in a statement.

It also reveals that it could take between nine and 18 months for New Zealand to sign the treaty, and only after a formal examination process has taken place.