Cruise ships are big polluters

In its annual survey of cruise ships, the German environment group Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) found that no single ship has adequately reduced its environmental impact in 2017. Even worse, the cruise industry’s contempt for the health of its customers and port citizens is underlined by the fact that not one company responded to a simple Q&A supplied, NABU said.

“The environmental performance of cruise companies is lousy, as is their attitude to transparency. Last year the sector claimed 23 ships would be operating with soot filters. The truth is not a single filter is working at present,” said Dietmar Oeliger, head of transport policy at NABU.

According to NABU, a mid-size cruise ship burns as much as 150 tonnes of fuel each day, and emits as much particulate matter (PM) as one million cars. NABU is calling for a general ban on the use of heavy fuel oil on all ships worldwide and for all ships to install particulate filters and SCR catalysts to reduce emissions of PM and NOx, respectively.

Source: NABU press release, 5 September 2017 NABU: https://en.nabu.de