Italy is the European country with the most pollution from cruise ships

When it comes to pollution from cruise ships, Italy is apparently second to none in Europe. That’s what the report claims The Return of the Cruise of the environmental organization Transport & Environment founded over thirty years ago. According to the study, 47 cruise ships, as many as entered the port of Hamburg in 2022, produce greenhouse gases equivalent to those emitted by 900,000 cars. And this is a problem for our country given that 103 vehicles passed through Civitavecchia this year, polluting over forty times more than the vehicles registered in the Lazio city.

In reality, Barcelona is at the top of the ranking, with 106 ships, but in our ports overall the number of berthings is much higher: in addition to the 103 in Civitavecchia, there are 68 in Naples, 31 in Genoa, 53 in Leghorn. In general, the atmospheric emissions of these large vessels have returned to pre-pandemic levels, as indeed also happened with the traffic of vehicles on land. Europe’s 218 cruise ships have emitted more sulfur oxides (SOx) than a billion cars, or 4.4 times more than all cars on the continent which total 253 million vehicles.

Compared to 2019, the number of ships, the time spent in ports and the fuel consumed increased by about a quarter, between 23 and 24 and this has led to an increase in emissions of three extremely toxic air pollutants: SOx, which recorded a plus 9%, NOx (nitrogen oxides), whose emissions grew by 18%, and PM 2.5, increased by 25%. The only exception is Venice. Here, air pollutants from cruise ships have decreased by 80% following the ban on port access for large cruise vessels introduced in 2021.

The European objectives established in the ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime regulations aim to increase the diffusion of sustainable fuels for aircraft and ships in order to reduce their environmental footprint. The idea is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030, practically tomorrow, and cut them all down in 2050.

However, according to Transport & Environment, switching from oil to gas would not be the solution. Many operators such as MSC are investing in this as a cleaner alternative. At the moment, more than 40% of the cruise ships ordered to the world’s shipyards are destined to be delivered with dual fuel engines, one of which is liquefied natural gas. These ships are better in terms of air pollutants, but would still be dangerous due to methane leaks from the engines, a gas 80 times more “climate-changing” than CO₂ according to the environmental association. P&O’s MS Iona, for example, would have emitted as much methane as 10,500 cows in a year. In any case, it must be said, it is still better than diesel. While waiting for the transition to hydrogen, the only other solution would otherwise be to block everything.