Sub-regional risk of spill of oil and hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea

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1 Background and partners of the project: The BRISK project (2009-2012) is a response to an increased risk of accidents and environmental damage in the Baltic Sea. The numbers and the sizes of ships navigating in the Baltic Sea area have increased in recent years, and the transportation of oil and other hazardous substances is growing steadily. The risk of shipping accidents has increased as well. Major oil spills can affect economy of several countries and are hence a transnational problem. Early and well organized response operations is an effective tool for reducing the environmental effects of pollution accidents.The project area covers all transnational maritime areas of the Baltic Sea divided into six sub-regional areas of responsibility. The project has 10 partners in 8 Baltic Sea countries representing the national authorities responsible for spills of oil and hazardous substances. The Admiral Danish Fleet is the Lead Partner. See project website www.brisk.helcom.fi 2. Objectives: The overall aim is to increase the preparedness of all Baltic Sea countries to respond to major spills of oil and hazardous substances from shipping and enhance sub-regional co-operation. The project will offer the first overall risk assessment of pollution caused by shipping accidents covering the whole Baltic Sea area basen on common methodology. The project will identify gaps in existing emergency and response resources needed in all sub-regions of the Baltic to effectively tackle major spills of oil and hazardous substances. It will prepare pre-investment plans on how the countries can jointly fill in the gaps, and facilitate the development and conclusion of sub-regional agreements between neighboring countries for joint response operations. The sub-regional approach is cost-efficient as countries can share their resources to build a common pool of response vessels and equipment sufficient for a given sub-region. 3. Expected results: The results of the project will enhance the safety and environment of the Baltic Sea. • A common understanding of the concept of risk and damage will be the first important step in the direction of a unified and consistent response in the Baltic Sea. • The description of common criteria for required level of response and comparisons with existing response capacities will provide a comparable description of the needs for response resources. • The risk analysis will provide important mapping of high risk areas and hence help the authorities responsible for oil spill to a better prepared-ness on a national, sub-regional and Baltic Sea level. • The investment plans will provide a basis for donors to optimise the resources. Therefore, funding within the maritime safety sector may become more attractive to potential sponsors.

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