Maritime experts and policymakers gathered in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, in August 2019 to brainstorm on future directions of regional cooperation to address oil, hazardous noxious substance, and marine pollution.
Due to the fast economic growth and the corresponding increase of maritime traffic in the region, several oil and hazardous noxious substance spill incidents occurred in the Northwest Pacific region. Responding to this, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation set up the Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Centre under the Northwest Pacific Action Plan in 2000. In the past two decades, four member states have cooperated closely to respond to maritime accidents through multi-layer information exchange, joint exercises, the establishment of cooperative mechanisms, platforms, guidelines.
The Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan adopted by the four Member States in 2003 has further laid a solid foundation for regional cooperation in addressing oil spill incidents. In 2009, the plan was revised to include an additional category: Hazardous and Noxious Substances. In the Sanchi incident, when a 136,000-tonnes oil tanker sank near Shanghai in January 2018, the member states cooperated very closely to timely exchange more than 250 reports under the framework of the Regional Contingency Plan. Such a level of collaboration demonstrated the effectiveness of the regional mechanism.
In the August meeting in Seoul, participants commended the achievements of the regional mechanism, including various communication channels and practical response capacities. They also highlighted that the Regional Centre should be using the currently available windows of opportunities like the global environmental agenda, strengthening the relationship with the International Maritime Organization. The weak link with UN Sustainable Development Goals and the limited operational budget of the Regional Activity Centre were also recognized.
Participants also discussed potential projects like an early assessment of the status and fate of oil spills, the application of new technologies to spill prevention preparedness and response, health safety and security for responders, volunteers and residents, and long-term environmental monitoring after spill incidents. The development of a mid- or long-term strategy for the Regional Activity Centre to address marine disasters and pollution now becomes vital.
Implementation of NOWPAP contributes to the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) in the Northwest Pacific region.