Many passengers now also know that cruises are a particular burden on the environment. Some of them want to offset the CO2 emitted by the sea voyages - and therefore pay contributions to organizations, which in turn invest them in climate protection projects.
Atmosfair has also offered this type of CO2 compensation for cruises of the shipping company Aida Cruises - but does not do so, as the Bonn non-profit organization confirmed. Atmosfair justifies the move by saying that the cruise industry is not doing enough to implement the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. First, tourist trade media had reported about it.
"After the cooperation with Aida we came to the conclusion that the own contribution of the industry is not right", says Dietrich Brockhagen, the managing director of Atmosfair. Ambition and speed of the measures taken so far by the shipping companies were not enough for the Paris targets.
There are technically mature climate solutions such as synthetically produced LNG as fuel, which the industry does not pick up. "Then the CO2 compensation works as if advanced," says Brockhagen. For the cooperation with the Rostock shipping company Atmosfair has been heavily criticized.
Emissions and other problems
Aida Cruises announces on request that it is committed to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Invest in solutions for emission-neutral operation of the fleet. Among other things, the company refers to the "Aida Nova", the world's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cruise ship. Two sister ships follow. Brockhagen, on the other hand, argues that fossil LNG causes only about 20 percent less CO2 than marine diesel or heavy fuel oil.
The cruise is in criticism. It's about, among other things
- the environmental consequences of ship emissions,
- an overload of ports and coastal cities
- and bad working conditions.
Nevertheless, the travel form is popular with Germans, the number of guests increases.
How much CO2 and other climate gases the individual tourists on a cruise causes, is not easy to calculate, explains the portal Cruisetricks.de. The shipping companies Aida and TUI Cruises reported average values per day and passenger. However, calculating these down to individual ships or trips is hardly possible. Therefore, the amounts that tourists pay as compensation, depending on the provider and climate calculator sometimes very different.
Atmosfair is not the only organization for CO2 compensation. Another provider is Myclimate, who provides a climate calculator for cruises on his website. By means of some information, such as the size of the ship and the duration of the trip, tourists should be able to determine a proportional CO2 emissions. This then results in the compensation payment.