The white smoke that has been coming from Golden Ray, has now been stabilized by Unified Command response crews. The cause of the smoke is yet unknown, as the car carrier is being salvaged in St. Simons Sound, Georgia.
ESPO presented its annual Environmental Report for 2019, including more than 60 different environmental performance benchmarks containing figures on the green services to shipping, as well as the Top 10 Environmental Priorities of the European ports. 94 ports participated in this year’s report.
A federal judge urged Carnival to work faster, in order to mitigate ocean pollution problems, that the company has caused. Namely, during a hearing in Miami, US District Judge Patricia Seitz noted that more concrete actions and less promises are needed from Carnival.
During 2019, NGO BirdLife Malta informed that there will be no less than 122 port calls to Malta by Europe’s ‘worst-polluting cruise ships’, according to the Cruise Ship Ranking for 2019 which has just been published. The list, compiled by NABU was presented in the past days, and regarding this year’s ranking, 90 vessels were checked on their emissions’ impacts, especially on contribution to air pollution levels.
US Attorney Gretchen Shappert for the District of the Virgin Islands announced that two Greek Shipping companies have been convicted and sentenced for various pollution, record-keeping, and obstruction of justice crimes. The defendants’ conduct included using fuel that surpassed the maximum allowable sulfur concentration in the US Caribbean Emission Control Area
Carnival Corporation emitted about 10 times more sulphur oxide (SOx) around European coasts than did all 260 million European cars in 2017, a new analysis by sustainable transport group Transport & Environment reveals. As for Royal Caribbean Cruises, it is second, with yet four times worse than the European car fleet.
Red Funnel, a UK ferry operator, has been testing the use of biofuel in its ferries for nine months, but the company commented that although biofuel can be burnt, supply and legislation issues mean that the fuel is not currently viable for them.
The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) announced that Africa is ready to implement the global regulations concerning the air pollution by vessels, according to IMO’s MARPOL convention. SAMSA’s acting CEO, Mr Sobantu Tilayi, focuses on the 2020 sulphur cap and Africa’s intention on fighting pollution and reducing shipping emissions.
An £80,000 network of air pollution monitors, funded by the Port of London Authority, is now in place, ready to record the effect of emissions locally from cruise ships docking in Greenwich this summer. The eight monitoring stations are located close to the Greenwich Ship Tier landing stage. They will capture data all day long, with the raw data available at the websites of both the PLA and Breathe London.
In light of IMO’s MEPC 74 meeting in London being conducted this week, groups issue call to reevaluate scrubbers as alternative compliance tool for 2020 fuel standards, citing evidence in US federal case against Carnival Corporation.
