Cruising causes pollution in Europe

An environmental ranking of European cruise ships concludes that none of these can currently be recommended. German green group NABU has analysed the European cruise ships focussing on emissions of air pollution. As in previous years’ rankings, the fuel used, the installation of exhaust gas cleaning systems and the use of shore power supply was checked.

They found that all ships are still burning heavy fuel oil, which is the dirtiest type of fuel available, and eighty per cent of the cruise ships sailing in Europe do not use any exhaust gas cleaning system. By using scrubbers to reduce the sulphur emissions some ships just meet the minimum legal standard, but to cut the very harmful pollutants like soot, ultra-fine particles or nitrogen oxides no effective measures are implemented on board these ships.

NABU press release 31 August 2016

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