Green Group Raises Concerns Over On-Board Shipping Emissions Levels

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday January 25, 2017

While the effects of ship emissions have in recent years gained increasing attention for their land-based impact, German NGO and long time cruise industry critic Nature and Biodiversity Union (NABU) Tuesday highlighted undercover air tests that were said to show the emissions levels on-board vessels could also be a concern. 

The new measurements are said to have been carried out by a French television team working for the show "Thalassa" and taken last Friday on the passenger deck of a European cruise ship,

The results, say NABU, showed high levels of ultra-fine particles in the ambient air.

"So far we have only been able to document the air pollution of ships on land, next to the cruise terminals for example, but neither we nor independent third-parties were allowed to do it on the ships in order to check the pollution there," said Daniel Rieger, NABU’s transport policy officer.

NABU notes that it has also conducted a series of air pollution measurements in several port cities and next to cruise ship terminals in Venice, Hamburg, Marseille, and Barcelona over the past few months, but did not detail specific findings.

The group did, however, accuse the cruise industry of "refusing to switch to cleaner fuels and to install exhaust gas cleaning systems," despite having previously stated that "scrubbers are no solution to air pollution from ships."

Ship & Bunker News Team
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