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38 I Southeast Europe bne July 2019
A giant cruise ships docks at the historic Croatian city of Dubrovnik.
Backlash against super polluter cruise ships in Croatia
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
An award winning Croatian tour company announced on June 12 it will no longer work with cruise companies or their passengers. The strongly worded statement from Secret Dalmatia talked of the pollution caused by cruise ships and the “suffering” of local residents as thousands disembark in Croatia’s historic Adriatic ports.
Secret Dalmatia announced its decision a few days after environmental consul- tancy Transport & Environment (T&E) issued a damning report that revealed toxic sulphur oxides (SOx) emissions from cruise ships on European routes are many times higher than the entire SOx emissions from the continent’s car fleet.
“Luxury cruise ships are floating cities powered by some of the dirtiest fuel possible,” said T&E’s shipping policy manager, Faig Abbasov, in a statement. “Cities are rightly banning dirty diesel cars but they’re giving a free pass to
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cruise companies that spew out toxic fumes that do immeasurable harm both to those on board and on nearby shores.”
The study looks at emissions of SOx, ultrafine particles (PM2.5) and nitro-
NOX, 10 kt of PM and more than 10 mega- tonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide in 2017.
“Most of these emissions (especially SOX) took place in the Mediterranean Sea and other major touristic destina-
“Luxury cruise ships are floating cities powered by some of the dirtiest fuel possible”
gen oxides (NOx), which, it says, cause premature death, including from lung cancer and cardiovascular disease, and lead to childhood asthma.
It analysed 203 cruise ships that sailed
in the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of European countries in 2017, based on satellite data on ship movements, finding that the cruise ships monitored emitted about 62 kilotonnes (kt) of SOx, 155 kt of
tions, but also along the coasts of the key member states where cruise ships depart from/terminate at or operate around,” says the report.
The title of the report, “One corporation to pollute them all” refers to the world’s biggest cruise company, Carnival Cor- poration, which according to T&E emits 10 times more SOx than all of Europe’s 260mn cars. The second largest cruise