The types of cruise ships with the highest emissions coming to Malta will almost double by the end of the year, according to BirdLife.
The environmental NGO is warning that all cruise liners calling at Valletta are largely in the worst category based on emissions.
Throughout 2017, 65 ships with this ranking visited Malta, while 58 cruise liners have already visited Malta so far this year.
This will reach 112 port calls by the end of this year, according to the Valletta Cruise Port’s schedule, BirdLife said.
Read: Prospects for cleaner air over Grand Harbour as new rules push cruise ships to LNG fuel
The “shocking number” was revealed on the Cruise Ship Ranking list for 2018.
The list was compiled by BirdLife Malta’s German partner The Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), as part of the ongoing Together against Air Pollution from Ships project.
Its data also shows that just one newly built cruise ship has renounced the use of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) in exchange for cleaner and less polluting fuel.
“AIDAnova will be the first cruise ship using LNG, while giants such as MSC Cruises, Carnival Cruise and Royal Caribbean persist in using HFO, without mitigating their contribution to air pollution. The AIDAnova is, however, not scheduled to call at Valletta in 2018,” BirdLife commented.
Read: Cruise liner fumes reach 'unbelievably high' levels
Policy officer Janina Laurent explained that so far this year, only five ships entered Maltese territorial waters which had an SCR-Catalytic System and a scrubber that filtered exhaust.
“Creating incentives such as ecological port fees to attract ships with less polluting technologies to Malta would help improve poor air quality levels in the harbour region.
“This would see port fees depending on a ship's environmental performance. Cleaner ships would have to pay lower fees.”
Together with NABU, BirdLife reiterated that LNG was not the salvation for the shipping industry, as it was still a fossil fuel.
A shift in the shipping industry towards a drastic reduction in emissions was necessary to reach climate goals set under the Paris Agreement, it insisted.