Given how the global cruise industry is continuing to expand, and the more strict emission-related regulations that are set to be unleashed, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) has called for shipowners to employ various eco-friendly emission abatement methods.
This comes following the current cruiser ranking of NABU, which takes into account all newbuilds planned up until 2020. It uses as basis the analysis of recent European market developments and places a special focus on the ships’ environmental performance.
Many of the cruise industry’s big names have been busy working towards implementing methods for reducing emission levels, such as Costa Cruises and AIDA, but others like MSC and Royal Caribbean have become the object of heavy criticism by environmental experts.
According to NABU, a recent study released by the Helmholtz institute further points out the significant impairments regarding human health that come along with ship emissions. Cruiser companies at the ranking’s top prove that various technical solutions can lead to the drastic lowering of emission levels. NABU comments that the current objective should be for all new vessels to use such techniques.
AIDA Cruises has come up with plans for two new vessels that are going to operate strictly on LNG that can be burnt without producing poisonous air pollutants like soot (BC), Particulate Matter (PM) and sulphur dioxides (SO2). AIDA’s parent company that is Costa Cruises has placed an order for the same type of vessels.
The current ranking of NABU further displays the fact that all of the other cruiser companies are still operating their vessels on HFO, and commit to emission abatement -related investments only if the law forces them to.
NABU comments that shipping in general has to stop operating on HFO, which can be responsible for causing major environmental disasters as well as polluting the air.