The Swedish government follows Denmark’s suit in banning scrubber water discharges in its territorial waters.
The ban applies to all ships in Swedish territorial waters. Discharges from all scrubbers into water are prohibited in Swedish territorial waters from January 1, 2029, the government said in a statement.
In a proposal issued at the end of June, the Swedish government wanted to start prohibiting discharges from open loop scrubbers beginning July 1, 2025. The government now decided to prohibit these discharges in its territorial waters from July 1, 2025.
In commenting on the scrubber discharge ban, Sweden’s Infrastructure and Housing Minister Andreas Carlson said that most Swedish shipowners have already chosen to run on fuel with such low sulfur content that they stay within the emission requirements without scrubbers.
“We are now banning ships from discharging scrubber water into Swedish waters. With this decision, no ships that operate in our seas are allowed to discharge scrubber water into Swedish territorial waters,” he said.
In line with the government’s marine environment bill, a memorandum was submitted in June 2024 with a proposal to ban emissions from scrubbers.
The government has now decided on the amendments to the regulations that are required for the ban to come into effect.
Both Sweden and Finland have now decided to ban discharges from scrubbers and Denmark has also announced a ban.
According to Sweden’s Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari, emissions from ship scrubbers are, even in very low concentrations, harmful to the marine environment.
The use of scrubbers also increases total fuel consumption by around 2-3 percent, which also increases carbon dioxide emissions. The minister added that with this decision the government is taking now an important step for a better marine environment and for a better climate.
Denmark’s Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke also put forward a bill in the Folketinget (Danish parliament) that will prohibit the discharge of scrubber water from ships into Danish territorial waters, which extend to 22 km from the Danish coasts.
The ban comes into force on 1 July 2025 for ships with scrubbers in open operation. For ships with scrubbers in closed operation, the ban enters into force on 1 July 2029.
The bill follows up on the political agreement on the ban on the discharge of scrubber water, which was concluded on 11 April 2024 between the government, SF, DD, LA, K, EL, RV and ALT.
Furthermore, the bill means that in the future ships will have to switch to using either fuel with a low sulfur content or closed scrubbers with zero-emissions. This means that the residual product from the closed scrubber must be delivered to the ports’ reception facilities.
“Scrubber water is a significant source of environmentally hazardous substances in our marine environment. Once the substances have entered the marine environment, they break down very slowly, and they accumulate on the seabed and in the ocean’s food chains. It is serious for both life in the sea and can also be serious for us humans. With this bill, we can lower emissions of, among other things nickel with up to 20 percent and anthracene with seven percent, and this is a decisive step on the way to a better marine environment,” said Magnus Heunicke, Minister of the Environment.
The sea area out to approx. 22 kilometers (12 nautical miles) corresponds to the sea area that can be regulated nationally. The sea area outside the 22 kilometers is regulated according to international rules.
Therefore, Denmark is simultaneously working for a similar ban in the Baltic Sea and North Sea through the regional maritime conventions HELCOM and OSPAR with a view to regulation under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
