As the global cruise industry continues to grow, and with more stringent emissions regulations set to come in to force, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) is calling for more shipowners to use environmentally friendly emission abatement techniques.
This comes after NABU’s current cruise ship ranking, which looks at the planned ship new builds until 2020. It is based on an analysis of recent developments on the European market with a focus on the environmental performance of ships.
While some big names in the cruise industry are working towards reducing emissions, like AIDA and Costa Cruises, others have been criticised by environmental experts, including Royal Caribbean and MSC.
NABU says a recent study from the Helmholtz-institute proved again the massive impairments that ship emissions mean for human health. But, cruise ship companies at the top of the ranking prove that technical solutions to drastically lower emissions from ships are available. NABU says now the aim is that all new ships use these techniques comprehensively.
AIDA Cruises is now planning two new build ships that will run completely on LNG that can be burnt without emitting poisonous air pollutants such as Particulate Matter (PM), soot (BC) and sulphur dioxides (SO2). Costa Cruises, parent company of AIDA, has also ordered the same type of ships.
According to NABU’s current ranking, all other cruise companies are still running their ships on HFO, and invest in emission abatement techniques only if forced by the law, like scrubbers.
NABU says shipping in general needs to stop using HFO all together, which “not only pollutes the air massively but also can cause huge environmental disasters”.