GOVERNING EXTERNAL COST OF SHIPPING IN EMISSION CONTROL AREAS: AN INSTRUMENTATION APPROACH

Abstract

This paper investigates emission control areas (ECAs) as an instrument to address external costs from shipping. Though ECAs have been researched in a versatile manner by scholars of economics, management and policy studies, rather less attention has been paid to the complex multi-level and multi-actor institutional environments into which ECAs are implemented Yet, the decisions of shipping actors regarding the improvement of their safety and environmental performance can be both enhanced and constrained by the ‘rules of the game’ embedded within respective institutional frameworks. The paper investigates the case of the Baltic ECA in order to explore the interplay between the existing and emerging arrangements for shipping externalities governance. Methodologically it draws upon the instrumentation approach, which conceptualises governance instruments as policy implementation choices and reveals which relations between the actors involved into the governance process they imply. The study explores the origin, content and power implications of technical instruments associated with the goal of enhanced environmental protection of the Baltic Sea. It aims to assess how the new instrument of ECAs can play itself out in terms of externalities governance. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of ECAs as a potential enabling environment for quality shipping.