A new report was released today by the German NGO NABU, claiming that despite the use of LNG fuel and new technologies to reduce emission, the pollution is still massive. Dietmar Oeliger, head of transport policy at NABU said, cruise operators are not transparent when saying that 23 cruise ships were operating in Europe with soot filters which reduce the pollution. The truth is not a single filter is working on any vessel at present day.

The latest Cruise ships operated by the German Cruise Line AIDA, AIDAprima and AIDAperla are equipped with soot particle filters and SCR-Catalytic Systems, but the exhaust treatment is unfortunately not operational,’ reports NABU. Costa Cruises, MSC, and Royal Caribbean offer little to demonstrate they care for the environment or the health of their passengers and crew onboard, NABU adds. The German NGO claims that all cruise operators still use heavy fuel oil (HFO) to power their vessels. In the ranking, only Hapag-Lloyd and TUI Cruises share the top position due to the installation of nitrogen oxide catalysts.

NABU CEO Leif Miller said: ‘Despite multiple claims cruise ships are cleaner and greener, the industry’s attitude to the environment remains poor. The lack of transparency is also symbolic: not a single cruise company responded to the written questionnaires of NABU. Instead, the CLIA branch of the industry sent a general letter, which did not allow any conclusions to be drawn about individual ships of the member companies. The NABU considers this behavior to be a deliberate obfuscation tactic, with the aim of removing responsibility through the lack of transparency and dialogue.