Since 2015, with funding from the Connecting Europe Facility program, the Belgian Coastguard Aircraft has been equipped with a sniffer sensor to measure ship emissions of ocean-going vessels at sea. This sensor allows the Belgian coastguard aircraft to monitor compliance with ship emission regulations.  

Initially, only CO2 and SO2 were measured to monitor compliance with IMO MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 14 and the EU Sulphur Directive. However, over time, additional hardware and software upgrades were implemented to enhance SO2 measurement accuracy and incorporate other pollutants such as NOx and Black Carbon. With the NOx sensor and the development of specialized procedures, the Belgian Coastguard aircraft is currently worldwide the sole asset capable of providing reliable compliance monitoring for MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 13. 

Since the inception of the program, more than 7,000 ships have been monitored for sulphur emissions, and 3,000 for NOx. In total, over 466 violations for sulphur and 115 for NOx have been reported to Belgian and European Port State Control (PSC) authorities. The measurement results provide important insight on real world ship emission factors and compliance levels at sea. The insights gained from these operations were presented by RBINS to the Bonn Agreement. With RBINS as a driving force, the Bonn Agreement decided to include Marpol Annex VI within its scope, initiating international cooperation among the Bonn Agreement Contracting parties. Led by RBINS, a MARPOL Annex VI workshop was organized, resulting in the formation of two working groups, one of which is headed by RBINS.