The Maritime Authority of Jamaica is pressing domestic bunkering companies, as well as the industry's major fuel supplier, Petrojam refinery, to meet more stringent carbon-emission regulations in the face of the threat from global warming.

"We have an obligation to ensure that we put in mechanisms to reduce the risk of an increase in CO2 and other gases emitted by ships which call at our ports," Bertrand Smith, who oversees legal affairs at the authority, told staff at the government's Jamaica Information Service (JIS) during a discussion last week that the agency held with corporate and public sector leaders.

Jamaica is signatory to a 1997 convention that limits the sulphur content in the fuels used by ships to no more than 4.5 per cent.

sulphur-emission cordons

The agreement also allows countries to establish sulphur-emission cordons, which require ships that enter them to use fuels with a sulphur content of no more than 1.5 per cent.

"This ensures that the ship's emissions do not contribute to climate change," Smith said.

Ships carry the bulk of the world's cargo. they account for less than three per cent of the ozone-damaging emissions.

The threat of global warming has serious implications for the industry, but a coastal state like Jamaica, 95 per cent of whose cargo comes by sea, is also deeply involved in the business.

"We encourage more ships to call at our ports," Smith said. "However, with more ships, we will be encouraging more greenhouse gases to be emitted in our area."