Cruise ships accused of polluting the air of Rouen: what is it really?
By Valentin Lebosse
Published on
The cruise not really fun anymore. As calls for sobriety multiply in the face of the climate emergency and the energy crisis, more and more voices are being raised in port cities against welcoming ocean liners. Too big, too polluting… These giants of the seas crystallize the critics.
Fr Seine-Maritime, the collective “Not that beautiful” recently formed to fight against the construction of a new cruise terminal to Le Havre. Also a project contested by Extinction Rebellion activists. A Rouen also, the subject of ocean liners is making waves. With a feeling of double standards, while the Metropolis prohibits the circulation of vehicles rejected as the most polluting in the EPZ. Evidenced by these posts on Twitter:
The end of the 24 hours of motorboating a sense of injustice also fed this.
The share of ocean liners in air pollution
Fine particles, nitrogen oxides, greenhouse gases… 76news obtained fromAtmo Normandy (the organization responsible for monitoring air quality in the region) data on pollution generated by maritime transport in Rouen. These are estimates calculated based on the type of vessel, its fuel consumption, time spent at dock, etc. Here are the results by category of boat, in 2019 (last reference year available before the health crisis linked to Covid-19):
Whatever the pollutant measured, ocean liners represent a relatively small part of emissions, between 2.03% for greenhouse gases and 2.7% for PM2.5. A far cry from bulk carriers transporting solid matter (around 71% of emissions) and oil tankers (around 26%).
These figures should be compared with those of port traffic in the Normandy capital. Cruise ships only account for 27 of the approximately 2,700 boats welcomed in 2019. “Rouen is essentially a port of bulk, especially cereals”, explains Haropa.
The problem of pollution from cruise ships appears all the more relative when compared to that caused by other sectors of activity on the scale of the metropolis of Rouen, as shown in the graph below. The cruise ship part is here isolated from the rest of maritime and river transport, which constitutes the bulk of the “non-road transport” category.
Taken as a whole, non-road transport (therefore river and maritime transport) represents a non-negligible source of pollution. He is thus the 2e NOx emitter behind industry but ahead of road traffic. According to Atmo Normandie, this is due in particular to the fuel used by the boats: fuel oil, which burns a lot of NOx. “In fine particles, other sources contribute more strongly, for example wood heating, agriculture, particles related to vehicle braking, etc. adds Atmo Normandie.
A liner pollutes as much as “30,000 cars”
It is no less true that a liner pollutes enormously. “The equivalent of 30,000 cars in dock and several hundred thousand in its start-up phase”, reports The world quoting ragsAtmoSud, the air quality observatory in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.
The passage of a cruise ship in the port of Rouen is also much more polluting than a commercial ship, as explained Xavier Lemoine, director of territorial development and environment at Haropa: “A boat at the quay continues to run its engines for the operation of its living space. The living space of a bulk carrier is a maximum of 20 people compared to 1,000 to 2,000 people on a liner. The amount of particles released should be roughly proportional to the number of passengers. Not to mention the power supply for all the comfort and leisure equipment on board cruise ships: swimming pools, casino, air conditioning, elevators, etc. On average, ocean liners also stay moored longer than merchant ships: 24 to 48 hours for the former, 12 to 24 hours for the latter.
No regulatory thresholds exceeded
Since then, classy of the exposure of those living near the port to this pollution? According to Atmo Normandie, “no exceedance of regulatory European limit values for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or suspended particles (PMten) cannot be attributed to maritime traffic on the territory of the Rouen Normandy Metropolis”.
On the other hand, the organization noted, in 2021, exceedances of the guideline values of the World Health Organization (non-regulatory) for PMten. These overruns concern an area of 5.65 km² and a population of 4,398 inhabitants. Although almost a third (1.732 km²) of this area is located in port areas, these are only home to 36 of the exposed residents (0.8%). “These values mainly correspond to grain shipments. Cruise activities seem to be very little affected,” observes Atmo Normandie.
The electrified cruise terminal “in 2026”
The port of Rouen is engaged in a vast electrification plan for its quays, to which we will return in detail in a future article. This plan includes the installation of two connection terminals – one at the Rouen cruise terminal, the other at Honfleur (which depends on the port of Rouen). According to Xavier Lemoine, their commissioning is expected by 2026.
They allow ocean liners to power their electrical equipment without running their engine. “Normally, there should be no more smoke when these ships are docked,” says the Haropa Port manager.
The public institution thus intends to comply with the forthcoming changes in the European regulatory framework. “It has not yet been formalized but in 2030 there will be a need for all liners to be able to be connected to be accommodated in a port, anticipates Xavier Lemoine. Cruise passengers are being asked to adapt their ships and ports are being asked to plan what is needed to connect them to the electricity grid. »
In Rouen, the first works should start in 2023.
Its president, Veronique Delmas, also points out that “responsibility for emissions cannot automatically be translated into terms of exposure”. The pollutants emitted by the smokestacks of boats are more dispersed than those which come out of the exhaust pipes of cars, closer to the ground, a fortiori on heavily trafficked roads. Thus, in the Rouen conurbation, “whether in terms of emissions or concentrations of pollutants, the car has a greater impact on populations she concluded.
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