Report: Still Not Enough Cruise Ships Using Emission Abatement Techniques

A newly released cruise ship ranking by NABU suggests that there are not enough vessels in the industry utilising emission abatement techniques.

Germany's Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) says that while leading cruise ship providers are starting to use cleaner and more efficient vessels, results of the organisation's latest cruise ship rankings show that there are still not enough vessels in the industry utilising environmentally friendly abatement techniques.

The ranking is said to have looked at planned newbuilds until 2020, including the type of fuels intended to propel the vessels, the intended emission abatement techniques to be used, as well as other enlisted emission reduction measures.

"Companies that still dread to invest in emission abatement techniques and better fuels today act completely negligently," said Leif Miller, CEO of NABU.

NUBA pointed to Carnival Corporation's AIDA Cruises (AIDA) Costa Crociere S.p.A. (Costa Cruises) as industry leaders in environmentally friendly ships, largely due to the two liquified natural gas (LNG) powered newbuilds set for delivery to the two companies within the next few years, but also pointing to AIDA's Prima and Mia vessels built last year.

"A look at the ranking shows that AIDA could assert its position at the top," stated NUBA, noting that "LNG can be burnt without emitting poisonous air pollutants such as Particulate Matter (PM), soot (BC) and sulfur dioxides (SO2)."

"Besides this all other cruise companies hang on to the operation with HFO and invest in emission abatement techniques only if forced by the law."

NABU also explains that it does not believe that use of scrubbers to clean exhaust emissions are a good enough solution.

"In NABU's view, shipping in general needs to stop using HFO at all which not only pollutes the air massively but also can cause huge environmental disasters in the case of averages," stated the organisation.


Named at the lower end of the rankings was MSC Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Viking Ocean, and Norwegian Cruise Line Corporation Ltd., all of which NABU says can see "no reason to equip their new build ships with emission abatement techniques or to switch to low sulfur fuels."

NABU further notes that shore power can be utilised more often to help the reduce the pollution being created in port cities as a result of an increasing number of cruise ship calls, but says this only makes sense if the shore power is supplied by a renewable source.

In March, NABU released the results of a study it said shows that "scrubbers are no solution to air pollution from ships."