Cruise ship owners that cater to the European market still fall short of protecting the environment while sailing vessels from one vacation destination to the next, according to a German environmental group.

The Nature and Biodeversity Conservation Union (NABU) gave poor marks to 19 owners that cruise round the continent in its 10th annual survey released on Tuesday.

Hurtigruten Norway was ranked the highest, scoring 50% out of a possible 100%, as a measure of progress on implementing measures to lower carbon emissions.

“First-placed Hurtigruten Norway, the Norwegian mail-ship line, achieved just half of the possible points, with all other companies ranking behind it,” NABU said in its ranking.

“Environmental and climate protection are still not in the focus of companies.”

NABU pointed out that heavy fuel oil continues to be the fuel of choice for most fleets and said that only a few owners have “truly future-proof projects” in the works.

“The results of the NABU cruise ranking show that the shipping companies are still doing far too little to protect the environment, nature and the climate,” the organisation said.

NABU said it based its ranking on what cruise operators are doing to create a clean climate-neutral voyage based on its roadmap until 2040.

“Among the top five are the three German companies AIDA, Hapag Lloyd Kreuzfahrten and TUI Cruises, which can be considered pioneers, especially for measures on large and very large ships, provided that the tentative attempts toward greater climate friendliness are implemented on a larger scale soon,” NABU said.

“However, the results also show that the companies are mainly coming up with fine words and announcements, but so far little has been implemented in concrete terms to improve the situation.”

Calls to shipowners in the ranking were not immediately returned.

NABU acknowledged TUI Cruises’ plans for a methanol-fuelled ship and the sector’s use of batteries and fuel cells to lower emissions, but it said these measures fail to show a true commitment to producing no emissions.

Two Hapag-Lloyd Cruises vessels sail side by side in frigid climes. The owner is phasing out the use of heavy fuel oil for propulsion, NABU said. Photo: Hapag-Lloyd Cruises

“Only companies that are phasing out heavy fuel oil today and making zero emissions a standard for all newbuildings can credibly demonstrate that the announcements for a climate-neutral future for cruise shipping are serious,” the group said.

“Heavy fuel oil with scrubbers or low-sulfur heavy fuel oil dominates the market today, and order books almost exclusively feature LNG ships.”

Hurtigruten Expeditions, Hapag Lloyd Cruises and Ponant are phasing out heavy fuel oil and using shore power, but their ships still show high emissions output per passenger, many of who fly great distances to join their cruises.

“This is because there are often far fewer passengers on board the ships in the expedition segment,” NABU added.

“In addition, they are often travelling in particularly sensitive regions of the world.”

But the onus to reach zero-emission cruising should not fall on owners alone, according to NABU.

“We need stricter regulation for all seas to force a comparable development throughout the industry.”