NABU
  • Contacts
  • Press
  • Shop
  • DE | EN
  • About us
      • News
        UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration begins 5 June with a new peatland conservation guideline issued

        UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration begins 5 June more →

      • Ecosystem Restoration
        Restoring peatlands, sequestering carbon

        Restoring peatlands, sequestering carbon more →

      • Topics in depth
      • Regional Development
      • Biosphere Reserves
      • Civil Society
      • Environmental Education
      • Cooperations
      • Projects
      • Water for Life
      • Hutan Harapan
      • Biodiversity Project Ethiopia
      • Ethiopia's Wild Coffee Forests
  • Topics
      • Ethiopia
        Green diversification of Ethiopia’s garden coffee value chain

        Ethiopia’s garden coffee value chain more →

      • Indonesia
        Indonesia: Restoring forests for future needs

        Indonesia: Restoring forests for future needs more →

      • All Topics
      • Climate Change
      • Biodiversity
      • Species
      • Regional Development
      • Land Use
      • Traffic
      • Ecosystems
      • Protected Areas
      • Education
      • Civil Society
      • Cooperations
  • Focus Regions
      • Ethiopia
        Developing forest landscapes for livelihoods and climate adaptation in Southwest Ethiopia

        Developing forest landscapes in Southwest Ethiopia more →

      • Central Asia
         Wild, beautiful and endangered

        Wild, beautiful and endangered more →

      • Focus Regions
      • Europe
      • Africa
      • Asia
      • Caucasus
      • Projects worldwide
      • Europe: Peat Restore
      • Germany: Havel
      • Ethiopia: Coffee-novation
      • Ethiopia: Water for Life
      • Madagascar: Green coasts
      • Kyrgyzstan: Snow leopard
      • Indonesia: Hutan Harapan
  • EU Policy
      • Project
        How do we finance nature and climate protection?

        How do we finance nature and climate protection? more →

      • EU Policy
        The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy needs a drastic reform

        The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy needs a drastic reform more →

      • Topics
      • Agriculture
      • Ecosystems
      • Traffic
      • Species
      • Education
      • Climate change
      • Issues
      • Common Agricultural Policy
      • Electromobility in Europe
      • Common Fisheries Policy
      • Sustainable Finance
  • Get involved
      • Snow Leopards
        Support us with your donation or adoption

        Hoping is not enough more →

      • Africa
        Nature conservation and regional development really have an impact – NABU knows this and acts on it.

        Help Africa’s nature by supporting one of our funds more →

      • Topics
      • Civil Society
      • Private Sector Cooperations
      • Habitat protection
      • Donate
      • Snow Leopards
      • Africa
  • Presse
  1. Topics
  2. Traffic
  • Traffic
  • Ports
  • Emission Control Area (ECA)
  • Cruise ship ranking 2020
  • Vision: Sustainable cruises in 2040
  • Cruise ship ranking 2020
  • SECA compliance and enforcement
  • LNG as Marine Fuel
  • Emission Control Areas
  • Study on scrubbers for ships
  • Expert discussion in the EU- Parliament on SECA
  • Ammonia as Marine Fuel
  • Cruise ship ranking 2022
  • Cruise ship ranking 2022
  • Container ships
  • Cruise ships
  • Government vessels
  • Greening Ports
  • Electromobility
  • NABU measures air pollution in ports
  • Publications
Read

This stinks! - Clean up cruise ships!

NABU's campaign for a cleaner cruise industry

There is hardly any other branch in economy where the gulf between image and reality is as wide as in the cruise industry: With huge marketing budgets and many efforts, cruise companies create a picture of being a bright, clean and environmental friendly tourism sector.

This stinks Logo

Photo: Stefan Prell

But the opposite is the case: The 'swimming hotels' run by Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC and other shipping companies contribute massively to the air pollution that threatens our climate, our environment and our health.

One cruise ships emits as many air pollutants as millions of cars! This is because sea going vessels use heavy fuel oil for their engines, a fuel that on land would have to be disposed of as hazardous waste. Heavy fuel oil can contain up to 3,500 times more sulphur than diesel that is used for land traffic vehicles. Even more, the ships don't have any exhaust abatement technologies like diesel particulate filters or SCR-catalysts, techniques that are built in trucks or passenger cars as a standard.


By burning this hazardous waste without emission abatement technologies, huge amounts of dangerous air pollutants like black carbon, sulphur dioxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are emitted. Those substances, some of them can be blown very far, lead to the damage of sensitive ecosystems, the acidification of soil and water, eutrophication of lakes and coastal areas. Moreover, they are responsible for severe illnesses such as cancer, asthma or cardiovascular diseases and for the premature deaths of ten thousands of people. And air pollutants, especially black carbon and the ozone precursor nitrogen oxide, contribute massively to global warming. For example, almost 50% of the warming of the Arctic is attributed to black carbon.


This irresponsible behaviour of a whole industry has to stop!

This stinks! - Clean up cruise ships!

NABU demands:

  • All cruise ships need to switch to low sulfur fuel immediately
  • All cruise ships need to built in emission aftertreatment techniques (diesel particle filters and SCRs), that effectively limit the black carbon, SOx and NOx emissions


More Information

Fahrgastschiff und Frachtschiff auf dem Rhein, im Hintergrund das Siebengebirge. - Foto: Helge May
Traffic

Busses, Trains, Cars and Bicycles – there are manifold possibilities and means of transportation to navigate through one's day-to-day life. A comprehensive mobility is a given natural for our modern way of life, however, at the same time certain modes of transport have drastically negative effects on our climate, environment and health. more →

MSC entwickelt bereits umweltverträgliche Antriebe. - Foto: unsplash/Claudio Schwarz
NABU cruise ship ranking 2020

The majority of the cruise industry is far from meeting the requirements of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. That is the result of the NABU cruise ranking 2020 that questioned the 18 largest providers on the European market. more →

Measurement air pollution - Foto: Daniel Rieger
Measurements show high concentrations of ultrafine particles in ambient air

Cruise or container ships, ferries, tug or excursion boats – ports gather a broad range of fuming smokestacks, which emit a great deal of air pollutants. Neither ship owners nor port authorities take effective, sufficient and comprehensive measures in order to protect local residents from toxic exhaust gases. more →

COntact Person

Daniel Rieger - Foto: NABU/Sevens Maltry
Daniel Rieger
Head of Transport Policy Daniel.Rieger@NABU.de +49 30 284 984-1924

Download

Background Paper Cruise Ships PDF (0.7 MB)

Contact

NABU
Charitéstraße 3
10117 Berlin
Germany

phone +49 (0)30.28 49 84-0 |
fax +49 (0)30.28 49 84-20 00
NABU@NABU.de

Info & Service

Contacts
Press
Jobs
NABU-TV
Shop

Imprint
Data Protection Notice
Cookie-Settings
Transparency

Main Topics

Biodiversity
Climate Change
Regional Development
Ecosystems
Land Use
Traffic
Focus Regions

Donate for Nature

Bank für Sozialwirtschaft
BLZ 370 205 00
Konto-Nr. 805 1 805

IBAN: DE65 3702 0500 0008 0518 05
BIC-Code: BFSWDE33XXX
Donate online


  • Press
  • Newsletter
  • Information Center
  • Deutsche Version