Tag: NABU

NABU finds its criticism confirmed that cruise ships’ exhaust gases not only severely damage the environment but also harm human health. Undercover air tests on the passenger deck of a European cruise ship now unveiled high loads of health damaging ultra-fine particles in the ambient air.

  During an expert discussion in the European Parliament NABU criticised the fact that there is virtually no surveillance scheme in place to control if ships meet the required bunker quality standards when sailing the North and Baltic Sea or the English Channel. The European Sulphur Directive (2012/33/EU) however limits the sulphur content for ship fuels as of January 1st 2015 to a maximum of 0.1% for ships operating in European waters declared as SECA in order to limit the sector's massive contribution to air pollution levels. Although there is only limited data available at the moment NABU stated that the number of ships being non-compliant are expected to be well over acceptable levels. The experts explained this view by demonstrating the economic advantage for cheaters in combination with a serious lack of enforcement when it comes to surveillance and penalties. NABU CEO Leif Miller said:"We definitely face a systematic malfunction if those market participants are the losers who run ships on cleaner fuels and according to the rules. At the moment there is a huge incentive for ship owners to be non-compliant as cheaters safe ten thousands of Euros per passage through the European SECA if they use the dirty fuel ...

 Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), a Germany-based environment association, has launched a campaign for a cleaner cruise industry.The cruise ships of the leading providers become cleaner, but still there are too few ships with environmental friendly emission abatement technique. This is a result of the current cruise ship ranking presented by NABU in Hamburg. The ranking examined the planned ship new builds until 2020. It is based on an analysis of recents developments on the European market with a focus on the environmental performance of ships. Decisive were, besides the fuel used, the planned emission abatement technique as well as other emission reducing measures. NABU representatives welcomed at the presentation of the ranking the willingness of some providers such as AIDA and Costa Cruises to get a handle on the massive emission problem of their ships. If the ships enter the market as announced, they will be a worldwide model for high sea ships. The ongoing denial of big market players such as Royal Caribbean und MSC was harshly criticised by the environmental experts.NABU CEO Leif Miller: "The sector is at crossroads, now the chaff is sifted from the wheat. Companies that still dread to invest in emission abatement ...