The ESG was shocked and saddened to witness the spread of heavy, thick marine oil throughout the harbour area caused by an accident at sea from a vessel taking bunker fuel off the South Mole.

It believes a full investigation into the cause of the spill must be carried out by the Port Authority to establish the extent of the spill and level of supervision in place during this particular transfer.

The coordinated action by the Port, Department of the Environment and different entities involved in the Command Centre, has helped remove the worst of the oil spill although there still remain a few significant hotspots. These include the bathing pavilion area among others. Land based cleaning will follow but it will be some time before the impacts from this oil spill are fully known and pollution caused by it, disappear entirely.

The threats to birds and sea life are obvious and the ESG demands that every effort is made by the authorities to establish precisely what happened following the apparent valve failure. It would like to know whether a full investigation has started into all aspects of the fuel transfer?

With the significant season for diving birds underway the ESG is particularly concerned by this spill and would like to hear about all the steps that will be taken to ensure this does not happen again. We would like to know the volume of oil that was leaked and the speed in which the oil contingency response was initiated. 

Finally the group expects that ‘polluting paying regulations’ will be fully applied once the investigation is completed to cover the costs of the clean up and impact on the environment which will continue for some time given the very challenging nature of cleaning up an oil spill. 

A number of birds have been taken in for treatment so far. 

If anyone spots a soiled bird please do not approach but contact the Environmental Protection Team on 58009620 immediately.’

It’s not been a full year since we began experiencing the full challenge and restrictions from the coronavirus that has provoked such unease, change in life circumstance, and tragedy. We hope that change is coming and that a semblance of normality will soon resume.

As issues of interest and concern to the ESG have been announced in the press recently, we felt this is a good opportunity today to run through some of these in our radio newsletter.

Last week we heard about the issuing of an LNG Bunkering Licence to Shell to operate from the Gibraltar Port Authority. While this prospect was raised a number of times during the early Power Station negotiations and technical preparations, we believe there remain a number of questions that should be answered. Where the storage for such a service comes from? What the short, medium to long-term plans are to balance LNG and Diesel bunkering capacity given our restricted anchorage facilities?  How will this impact the growth in business on the main carbon impacting activity in Gibraltar during a period of global divestment in fossil fuels? And how we must include this activity in our Climate Action Plans. Please visit our website for a full statement on this issue.

Last week also saw a very positive development on the legislation of the increase in Energy Performance Certificate criteria for renewable energy use in major buildings. This is a solid step in recognising the major impact that large-scale development has on our carbon footprint. While not meeting our call fully for an entire building project to be measured in carbon terms from the first brick laid, it nevertheless brings a necessary reality check to these major structures we are seeing and how sustainable they are.

This measure falls within Gibraltar’s climate targets and we hope to see the release and publication of the full Climate Action plans which has seen serious delay due to Covid, to follow this positive step.

With COP26 Climate Conference taking place in Glasgow later this year especially in light of renewed USA support we sincerely hope that a line will be drawn in the sand with less hot air and frustration and meaningful actions rolled out. 

The world needs good news right now and turning a corner on climate action would be very good news indeed.

Thanks for listening.

The ESG notes that Shell has been awarded an LNG bunker licence for ship-to-ship operations in Gibraltar. 

It also realises that the Gibraltar Government has always maintained its support for this and for Shells interest in pursuing this course of action.

The group has from the start of Shells presence in Gibraltar advocated highest standards and transparency from the company, and sought the same assurances from the Gibraltar Government believing the safety of the community to be of paramount importance. While it understands that burning LNG as opposed to Diesel will have environmental benefits it does not eliminate Greenhouse Gas emissions or air pollution altogether. Until such time as LNG totally replaces Diesel there will be an increase in pollution arising from this new licence.

With Shell describing Gibraltar as one of the busiest ports in Europe it follows that from a climate change perspective this activity should be fully accounted for, including on its overall carbon impacts today, and for the next 10 and 20 years of the Climate Emergency. At present these are not recorded within City Emissions for action but as ‘Other emissions’.

The group also asks where the supply of LNG will come from for the servicing of ships and tankers entering our Port? It also expresses concern that under normal circumstances our western anchorage points are extremely busy. This means that there will be even more ships being bunkered around our coastline, at least until LNG replaces Diesel as the fuel of choice in the Global Maritime World.

The ESG will be taking up all these concerns directly with the Port and the Environmental authorities.