“Shipping companies are under pressure to phase out use of heavy fuels, as world’s first hybrid battery-powered cruise ship set for launch in 2018”, according to Arthur Neslen in the Guardian, on July 11, 2017, following last week’s move by the IMO to begin work on addressing the risks posed by heavy fuel oil use in the Arctic.
More than 850 ships operating in the Arctic today are thought to use HFOs, said Dr Sian Prior, lead advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, and these represent around three-quarters of total Arctic ship fuel use. The majority are flagged to non-Arctic nations such as Panama, Liberia, Singapore and the Marshall Islands.