As Cullinane and Bergqvist (2014) suggest: “The future imposition of more stringent limits on both SOx and NOx emissions, together with greater geographical applicability, will put energy use and other efficiency measures high on the agenda for shipping companies. This may result in the wider use of measures such as speed differentiation that, in turn, may enable shipping companies to better absorb the price changes arising from the EC A regulations. The large socio-economic benefits of the EC A regulations, combined with the global challenges related to pollution in densely populated areas such as the Mediterranean and Asia, emphasize the importance of designating more regions as ECAs.”