Definition: the annual number of observations of operational oil pollution made by aircraft per 100 flight hours in Belgian and surrounding waters is the ratio of the number of illegal operational discharges by vessels at sea and along the coasts of the Belgian North Sea region to the number of flight hours of the control aircraft. The data come from the Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea.

Goal: the number of operational oil pollution incidents must be reduced to zero.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 14.1: “By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution”.

Annex I to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, adopted by the International Maritime Organization, on the prevention of pollution by oil, states that the North Sea has been a 'special area' since 1999. Special areas are sea areas in which, for technical reasons relating to their oceanographical and ecological condition and to their sea traffic, the adoption of special mandatory methods for the prevention of sea pollution is required (IMO, 2019). Therefore, there should be no longer any deliberate oil discharges.

International comparison: no comparison can be made, since there are insufficient data available on the Eurostat website.

UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to target 14.1 since oil pollution is a form of marine pollution.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • IMO (2019), Special areas under MARPOL, www.imo.org/en/ourwork/environment/specialareasundermarpol/pages/default.aspx (consulted on 26/04/2019).

More information is available in French and Dutch.