Several new regulations for the shipping industry are set to come into force on January 1st 2016, aimed at making future ships more environmentally friendly while also ensuring reduced emissions of, among other things, nitrous oxide, also known as NOx. The so-called Tier III regulation is just one of the new rules under the Marpol Annex VI directive which will limit air pollution from global shipping by reducing emissions from ships' engines.

In 2015 the carriers had to deal with the new sulfur emission regulations in the newly implemented SECA zones in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel and North America - a regulation that also hailed from Annex VI in Marpol. And next up is the NOx directive, which is an important topic, explains Per Winther Christensen (photo), technical manager at the Danish Shipowners' Association.