Hello and welcome to the Strawman, the daily climate newsletter that’s more interesting than your Netflix feed - did someone say Strawman and chill?

Anyways… Today we’re diving in to the cruise ship industry and exploring the takeaways of a new report that uncovers the climate impact. Let’s get in to it.

Shippin’ and Emittin’

This week Transport & Environment, the climate lobby group, dropped a new report on the impact of the cruise industry on the environment.

No prizes for guessing the results of this one, it ain’t looking pretty.

With all the talk of CO2, it’s easy to forget that there’s other forms of emissions out there. Consider Sulphur Dioxide for example, which causes acid rain and worsens respiratory conditions like Asthma. It’s like CO2’s annoying little cousin - we better pay attention to it.

Sulphur Dioxide is dirty stuff and cruise ships emit it in spades. In fact, the new report showed that cruise ships emitted four times more harmful sulphuric gases than passenger vehicles last year.

In response, the International Maritime Organisation introduced a 0.5% cap on sulphur content for marine fuels in 2020.

What happened next?

Well, ships installed ‘scrubbers’, a technology that removes Sulphur from a ship’s exhaust. Sounds like abatement, that’s good right?

Well not exactly. Cruise ships take that harmful output and dump it in the sea. Better for humans, way worse for marine life. Carnival, the world’s largest operator, was fined $20m for this behaviour in 2019.

It’s like putting a plaster on a bullet wound - props for trying but that ain’t it Captain.

Not in my back-canal

These cruise ships are particularly harmful to the air quality across major European cities. Now, some of these cities are taking things in to their own hands.

Take Venice for example, famously known as the city of canals, it used to be one of the most popular destinations for cruise ships. In 2021, they banned cruise ships larger than 25,000 tonnes from their waters.

The following year, sulphur emissions in Venice fell by 80%.

Barcelona might be following suite and other European cities are taking notes furiously.

To be clear, in the grand scheme of things, emissions from cruise operators is relatively small. That said, technology they adopt could be pivotal in a broader shift in the shipping industry which, in aggregate, has a significant impact on global emissions - let’s hope they get there in time.

Until next time,

The Strawman

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