Delay pollutes Picton, says ministry

accession, rather than delaying the move ‘‘to manage fuel price fluctuations’’.

However, the Ministry of Transport’s environment, emissions and adaptation manager, Glen-marie Burns, said changes to domestic legislation were needed before New Zealand could ratify the treaty.

‘‘We estimated it would take approximately 18 months to align our domestic legislation.’’

Cabinet had been advised that November 2021 was ‘‘the earliest time frame’’ New Zealand could accede. Annex VI obligations would come into effect three months later.

More stringent Annex VI regulations took effect globally on January 1 this year, when the sulphur limit of 3.5 per cent by mass for marine fuels fell to 0.5 per cent.

All ships ‘‘flagged’’ to Annex VI party states visiting New Zealand had to comply, but domestic ships, including Cook Strait ferries, were not yet bound by the regulations.

In her submission, Woodley said there were two main reasons why the Ministry of Health supported immediate accession.

The first was that ‘‘reduced emissions of harmful air pollutants will result in reduced adverse public health effects and costs, including premature deaths in New Zealand’’. The second was that ‘‘accession to Annex VI provides New Zealand with a tangible action to combat climate change’’.

Picton marine and environmental engineer Brent Yardley has been publicly calling for New Zealand to join Annex VI since 2018.

‘‘The Ministry of Health asked for immediate accession early in 2019 and have repeated that call again this year. Others have lobbied the Ministry of Transport to act since at least 2016,’’ Yardley said.

‘‘Is it reasonable to take years implementing rules that are standard virtually everywhere else? And is it reasonable to ignore the risk to public health in the meantime? I don’t think it is. It is abundantly clear that pollution is a serious health risk.

‘‘Why we can’t sensibly manage pollution, on the other hand, is not so clear.’’

New Zealand and Mexico were the only two countries in the OECD not signed up to the agreement requiring ships to run on cleaner fuel.

Straitnz, which owns Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries, said it supported New Zealand’s accession, in particular for reducing the impact on human health and environments from maritime pollution.

However, Bluebridge said the options available to comply were ‘‘limited and come with significant costs’’. The company’s submission said: ‘‘This will have flow-on effects for Bluebridge’s commercial freight and passenger customers and, in respect of commercial freight, flow-on effects for the end consumers of those services.’’