Can the cruise world do more for the ecological transition?
The town hall of Marseille is convinced of this.
The city councilor Benoît Payan (Printemps marseillais, left) has embarked on a crusade against the mastodons of the seas
.
Launched in July, his petition to demand the banning of the most polluting boats in the port of the Marseille city on days of peak pollution has collected nearly 49,000 signatures.
In reaction to these invectives, Erminio Eschena, president of CLIA France, the international association of cruise passengers, assured the
Figaro last week
that cruises represent less than 5% of port calls.
A figure well below reality for Laurent Lhardit, deputy in charge of tourism for the municipality.
The elected official believes that we must go faster to protect the Mediterranean, in particular by creating an “ECA” zone there to control polluting emissions.
To discover
Stays in France: weekends, hotels and tailor-made stays from our partners
Read alsoCruise ship pollution: understand everything about the bone of contention that agitates Marseille
LE FIGARO. - In his petition, the mayor calls for the state to strike faster, harder, to regulate the impact of those you call the giants of the seas. What specific measures do you have in mind?
Laurent LHARDIT. -
A SECA zone must be created in 2025 to limit sulfur emissions from boats in the Mediterranean.
We would like to see an even stricter zone, known as the ECA (
“Emission control area
”
, Editor
's note ), set up to limit all types of polluting emissions.
This is the purpose of the petition, and we are going to submit a file to this effect in the fall to the IMO (
the International Maritime Organization, which depends on the UN, Ed.
).
We are not asking for the moon: such restrictions already exist in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the United States or China.
Admittedly, the economic situation of certain Mediterranean States is not the same as those bordering the Baltic Sea.
But there is no reason why ships can pollute the Mediterranean more than other seas and oceans.
Moreover, following our petition, the State undertook to support our request for the creation of an ECA zone and to reinforce the pollution controls of boats by drones.
Laurent Lhardit, deputy in charge of tourism in Marseille City of Marseille
Are the efforts made towards the ecological transition, such as the electrification at the quay planned for 2025 in Marseille, therefore not enough?
We have to go faster and stronger, we have no choice for the planet and for the health of the people of Marseille.
Electrification will not solve everything.
It also poses a problem of energy consumption: how to produce and transport enough energy to supply the consumption of 8,000 people?
It should also be noted that these facilities were mostly funded by communities, while cruise lines would have had the ability to do it themselves.
Why not use public money to help the ecological transition of industries that do not have the investment power to do it alone, such as passenger transport to Corsica or the countries of North Africa?
Why focus on cruising when it represents only 5% of calls each year in Marseille, according to CLIA, the international association of cruise companies?
CLIA takes the number that suits them.
The Marseille Provence Cruise Club estimates that cruises generate 20% of the total pollution of maritime traffic.
Except that it is an average for the year.
These boats come especially during the summer period during which the pollution largely exceeds 20%.
And this debate concerns above all the mega boats, like the
Wonder of the Seas
of Royal Caribbean which embarks 9000 people.
This represents a small town, fueled by fuel.
In comparison, transport ships to Corsica with 800 people, even if they are equipped with old generation engines, pollute beyond measure.
In his column, the mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan speaks of boats that pollute
“
as much as a million cars
”.
Where does this number come from?
It comes from a 2018 France Nature environment study. But we would precisely like to better quantify the phenomenon.
For the moment, either the studies do not exist, or they are disputed by one or the other.
We receive complaints from residents about pollution, from doctors alerting us to respiratory illnesses.
The inhabitants of the center are asked to stop using their cars and when they stick their heads out their windows they see the smoke coming out of the boats... We have to measure the problem.
Let's set up a thermometer recognized by all the players.
The state committed in 2019 to launch a study on health and the environment.
But so far, it has remained a dead letter.
The economic benefits of cruises for the locality are also the subject of a battle of figures. What is your position on this?
Tourism represents only 6% of GDP in Marseille.
And it is largely fueled by the Marseillais themselves, who do not always go on vacation.
The latter no longer want mass tourism, but rather a model in which visitors come to enjoy the city without distorting it.
We don't want Marseille to become an amusement park.
Venice has bitten its fingers.
But there too, there is a lack of studies.
The Cruise Club produced one in 2017 that each passenger would spend €50 per stopover.
These numbers are fanciful.
MSC and Costa have confirmed to us that 30 to 70% of passengers stay on board during a stopover.
The other passengers, those who get off, take part in circuits organized by the company.
Some go to visit the Alpilles,
walk through the lavender fields.
Others stay in Marseille, but they certainly don't spend €50 knowing that they have lunch or dinner waiting for them on their boat and that their guided tour is already paid for.
From January 1, 2023, the town hall will recover the competence of the Tourist Office, which had come under the aegis of the Metropolis since January 2021. This will allow us to work in consultation to produce indisputable studies.
Because it is with all the actors of the port that we will succeed in the ecological transition.
the town hall will recover the competence of the Tourist Office, which had come under the aegis of the Metropolis since January 2021. This will allow us to work in consultation to produce indisputable studies.
Because it is with all the actors of the port that we will succeed in the ecological transition.
the town hall will recover the competence of the Tourist Office, which had come under the aegis of the Metropolis since January 2021. This will allow us to work in consultation to produce indisputable studies.
Because it is with all the actors of the port that we will succeed in the ecological transition.
