“Shocking” CO2 levels from cruise ship

English cruise ship MV Ventura emitted 9.6 tonnes of CO2 per hour when it was docked in Tórshavn on Wednesday.

This is 8 percent of the 119-tonne total hourly carbon emissions from Faroese society as a whole.

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To put this into perspective: for no change to occur in the Faroese carbon emissions during Ventura’s stay, eight out of ten cars would need to shut off their engines until the ship had left.

Shocking amounts

Benadikt Joensen, senior lecturer in petroleum engineering at the University of the Faroe Islands, says he is fully aware of the pollution coming from large ships, but he was nonetheless shocked when he heard the exact figures for MV Ventura.

It is not only CO2 emissions that are a cause for concern, he says. Numerous other harmful gases are emitted from ships, including nitrous oxides (NOx).

For each hour that Ventura was docked in Tórshavn, the ship emitted almost 133 kilos of NOx. When NOx comes into contact with moisture in the air, it transforms into saltpetre acid, which acidifies the air and is a great health hazard.

Translated by prosa.fo