New research by Which? Travel has found that Europe’s most polluting cruise ship emits as much carbon dioxide in a year as a small town.
We ranked European cruise lines based on their average carbon dioxide emissions according to the EU’s 2023 monitoring, reporting and verification data, and found that Disney Cruise Line was the worst polluter.
However, we found that Norwegian Cruise Line’s megaship Norwegian Epic was the biggest carbon-emitter of all: it was responsible for 95,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2023 – the same as the footprint of a small town with 20,000 residents.
We also believe big cruise companies are making questionable claims about their sustainability while their mega-ships continue to emit emissions that are damaging to the climate and human health, and water pollution that harms the marine environment.
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Europe’s most-polluting cruise lines
The Cruise Lines International Association predicts that 36 million passengers will go on a cruise holiday in 2024 – up from 31.5 million last year. The cruise sector is one of the fastest-growing in the tourism industry and cruise ships have become bigger and bigger to cater to this demand.
Less than 1% of the world’s ocean-going commercial vessels are cruise ships, but they have a disproportionate impact on the climate. A mass-market cruise ship carrying thousands of passengers needs energy for air-conditioned cabins, restaurants, bars, theatres, shops, pools and gyms, as well as propulsion. These power-hungry floating resorts burn through thousands of gallons of fuel a day.
Like all shipping companies, cruise operators visiting European ports must declare carbon dioxide emissions. We used this data to rank Europe’s cruise lines based on their average emissions per ship in 2023 and found that Disney Cruise Line was the biggest polluter.
Disney only had one ship sailing around Europe in 2023 – 2,500-capacity Disney Dream – which pumped out nearly one and a half tonnes of CO2 every nautical mile.
Norwegian was the second-worst polluter. Its 10 ships emitted nearly as much on average and 4,100-capacity Norwegian Epic spewed two tonnes of CO2 every nautical mile.
Unsurprisingly, the 10 most-polluting cruise ships in 2023 were all mega-ships carrying thousands of passengers – and three of them belonged to Norwegian.
The table below shows the most polluting European cruise lines based on their average CO2 emissions per nautical mile.
Based on the EU’s 2023 Monitoring, Reporting and Verification data (v14). *The annual average CO2 emissions per nautical mile have been averaged for each cruise line’s fleet (for example, if a cruise line had five cruise ships sailing to EEA ports in 2023, the table shows the average emissions across all five). Ships that travelled fewer than 20,000 nautical miles are excluded because they did not do a cruise season in Europe in 2023.
Our ranking doesn’t include methane emissions – a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide – because Europe-based ships will only start reporting those next year. Nor does it take into account air and water pollution, which is too difficult to measure, but it does illustrate the titanic scale of the problem.
Find out more: The best and worst cruise lines – as rated by holidaymakersThe carbon footprint of cruise holidays vs flying
We also asked carbon reduction consultancy Ecollective to estimate the carbon footprint of a seven-night mass-market Mediterranean cruise and a week’s holiday in Spain travelling by plane or train.
A seven-night no-fly Mediterranean cruise is estimated to emit 2,100kg of CO2e per guest (carbon dioxide equivalent) – almost five times more than flying to Barcelona and staying in a hotel for a week (425kg).
The climate impact of a seven-night Caribbean cruise is estimated to be almost twice that – a whopping 4,096kg.
Estimated by carbon reduction consultancy Ecollective, which works with travel firms to calculate the footprint of their holidays. *Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) takes into account other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. **Includes return economy flights to Barbados. ***Includes return economy flights or trains from London to Barcelona and all meals
Are gas-powered ships the solution or greenwashing?
Around half of the new cruise ships being built today can run on liquified natural gas (LNG), which is a fossil fuel.
MSC Cruises has two cruise ships that can run on LNG, including MSC World Europa. When we checked, the cruise line’s homepage claimed ‘we use the cleanest marine fuel available at scale today’ next to an ad for this 6,760-capacity mega-ship.
While it’s true that LNG emits less air pollution and CO2 than traditional marine fuels, it’s mostly methane – a greenhouse gas that traps much more heat than carbon dioxide – and gas-powered cruise ships tend to use engines that leak unburned methane. Green thinktank Transport & Environment estimated that Europe’s LNG-powered cruise ships emitted as much methane as 62,000 cows in 2022.
According to Tristan Smith, Associate Professor in Energy and Shipping at UCL, LNG can even result in higher greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent oil-burning engine when you factor in the methane and CO2 emitted when LNG is produced.
He told us that he considers it ‘incorrect and misleading to claim that it’s the “cleanest marine fuel at scale today”…[there’s] widespread recognition that LNG’s environmental credentials have been overstated and its use is an unhelpful distraction from the urgent transition that the shipping sector must make to become sustainable.’
When we put this to MSC Cruises, it said: ‘We strongly dispute the claim that our ships have high methane emissions. This is based on older-generation engines and does not take into account improved engine technology’. It pointed to recent measurements by independent third parties which it says ‘demonstrated that the latest type of engines on dual-fuel LNG vessels such as MSC Euribia release 40% less methane than the default value that are set by the EU.’
Campaign group Opportunity Green has accused several other cruise operators of greenwashing LNG including Royal Caribbean, which claims 7,000-capacity Icon of the Seas – the world’s largest cruise ship – runs on the ‘cleanest-burning marine fuel’.
Royal Caribbean told us: ‘LNG is one part of our decarbonisation strategy. We view it as a transitional fuel that builds flexibility into our ship design and helps us adapt to different fuels as they become available.’
Air pollution could cause premature deaths
The cruise industry’s environmental impact isn’t limited to emissions that accelerate global warming. Cruise ships often travel fast, close to the coastline and use huge amounts of power while at anchor compared to merchant ships – all the while burning fuel with 100 times more sulphur than the diesel or petrol we buy for our cars.
The 45 cruise ships that called at Southampton port in 2022 emitted nearly nine times more polluting sulphur than all of the city’s 93,000 cars while in port, according to Transport & Environment.
The air pollutants spewed by cruise ships – sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides – can cause premature deaths from lung and cardiovascular diseases and are a key component in acid rain. Cruise ships also belch out fine particles of soot, smoke and dust that can be inhaled through human lungs.
Residents in Marseille, France’s most-polluted port city, took their port to court last year after a long campaign that highlighted serious health problems caused by cruise ships.
Associated British Ports said it ‘doesn’t recognise the numbers produced by Transport & Environment in their theoretical modelling and has concerns about their methodology’. It added: ‘We closely monitor air-quality levels and ensure they are well within local authorities’ limits and national objectives. All vessels arriving in the port must run on low-sulphur fuel or be fitted with an exhaust gas cleaning system, and we’ve seen an increased number of cruise vessels using LNG fuel, resulting in up to 100% reductions in some emissions.’
Southampton’s cruise ships fail to plug in to shore power
The sustainability sections on cruise lines’ websites often boast that their ships have ‘shore power’. Nearly half of cruise ships are now capable of connecting to shoreside electricity, which can massively reduce emissions while a ship is in port. However, they rarely use shore power because fewer than 2% of the world’s ports currently have it.
The only UK cruise port with a plug-in berth is Southampton. Last year cruise ships called there around 500 times, but the port’s owner, Associated British Ports, told us its plug-in berth was only used 50 times – around 10% of visits.
The ships that used shore power did so only for around five hours per visit on average, despite typically spending 12 hours in port, according to a report by investigative website openDemocracy. This may be because it’s more expensive to plug in than to burn tax-free marine fuels.
Friend of the Earth Southampton said: ‘Even if it is being used, one plug-in berth is a token gesture considering the number of massive ships that dock here.’
Associated British Ports told us: ‘Shore power is heavily dependent on grid availability, good weather conditions for safe operations, government support and the technology on board cruise ships.’
Sea pollution harmful to marine environment
The majority of cruise ships still burn heavy fuel – one of the cheapest and dirtiest fossil fuels. Instead of switching to pricier, low-sulphur alternatives, cruise companies have installed exhaust gas cleaning systems – known as ‘scrubbers’ – so they can continue to use this tar-like, high-sulphur fuel while meeting emissions regulations.
85% of the fleet of the world’s largest cruise company, Carnival Corporation – which also owns Cunard, Costa and Carnival – are equipped with scrubbers, which it calls ‘Advanced Air Quality Systems’.
Yet scrubbers convert air pollution into toxic water by using seawater to remove pollutants from exhaust emissions. Most cruise ships use an open-loop system that dumps the contaminated seawater overboard, harming marine life and disrupting ecosystems.
France, Belgium and Denmark have banned the use of open-loop scrubbers in their waters, while Portugal and Croatia have done so in ports. There’s no UK-wide legislation, but Tilbury, Milford Haven and Forth ports have banned them.
Carnival said: ‘Prior to releasing the [scrubber] wash water, we filter and test it against three strict International Maritime Organisation-mandated parameters to ensure contaminants are removed. By the time it is released, the water is safe for ocean environments.’
Cruise lines cleaning up their act
A few cruise lines are investing in genuine solutions such as electric batteries and hydrogen-derived fuels. Cruise operator Hurtigruten has two ships that are partially battery powered.
Luxury line Viking – a Which? Recommended Provider for ocean cruises – is building four ships that will be partially propelled by hydrogen fuel cells. Its CEO expects it to cost $40 million per ship – only a few dollars extra per passenger cruise day.
Find out more: read our review of Viking Ocean CruisesWhat the cruise lines said about our ranking
Rather than focusing on total emissions – which would simply highlight the cruise lines that carried out the most cruises – we analysed emissions per distance travelled in order to spotlight the operators with the most-polluting vessels.
Disney, Norwegian, MSC Cruises and Carnival Corporation (the owner of P&O, Princess, Cunard, Costa and Carnival) questioned our methodology and said our analysis did not accurately reflect the environmental performance of cruise ships.
Disney said: ‘Disney Cruise Line complies with all air and water quality standards. While sailing in Europe, the Disney Dream used a combination of hydrotreated vegetable oil along with ultra-low-sulphur marine gas oil, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions beyond International Maritime Organisation requirements.’
Norwegian told Which? that the EU’s MRV data can provide valuable insights, but does not account for time spent in port, where emissions are naturally lower and where vessels spend a large amount of time, or the number of passengers being transported on the ship, which it considers should be considered to reflect the ship’s efficiency per person. It also told us that it is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030, using a 2019 baseline.
Carnival added: ‘Our fleet produces 10+% less total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions today than in our peak year (2011) despite increasing capacity by roughly 30%. Greenhouse gas emissions based on distance sailed is not a good measure of the environmental performance of most cruise ships, which often sail shorter distances and spend significant time in port. Instead we recommend considering indicators that drive total emissions reductions, such as emissions per lower berth capacity. In fact, we’re on track to have cut our GHG emissions per lower berth capacity (called carbon intensity) by 40+% by 2026 (vs. 2008 levels).’
MSC said: ‘The method used for this ranking is not an accurate reflection of the environmental performance of cruise ships and is misleading for consumers and does nothing to help them make informed decisions about the climate impact of their holiday. In 2023, the number of shore power connections in Europe increased and we will see this continue to increase year on year, eliminating local emissions in ports where shore power is available. In 2023 we had two LNG ships operating in Europe and this sees a reduction of greenhouse emissions by up to 20% compared to conventional maritime fuels.’
Virgin Voyages didn’t respond to our request for comment.
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Publish date : 2024-10-17 16:07:00
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