by Donald Wood
Last updated: 10:02 AM ET, Wed September 25, 2019
Officials from the famous French Riviera city of Cannes are working to introduce legislation that would ban certain cruise ships from its port.
According to Reuters.com, Cannes Mayor David Lisnard ordered a study to be conducted on how cruise ships arriving in the city impacted the local ecosystem, and the results provided enough concern for officials to call for the ban.
As the fourth-busiest port in France, Cannes welcomed 370,000 cruise ship passengers in 2018.
The ban would apply to passenger vessels that do not meet a 0.1 percent sulfur cap in their fuel emissions. Any cruise ship that attempted to enter the port that did not meet the higher standards would be turned away without allowing passengers to disembark.
"It's not about being against cruise ships. It's about being against pollution," Mayor Lisnard told Reuters. "I said that we will no longer accept tour buses and cruise ship passengers on the ground coming from polluting cruise ships."
One of the biggest cruise lines operating in Cannes is Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, with the company being responsible for 40 percent of total passenger ship traffic. As a result, Lisnard and Norwegian officials have reached an agreement for the cruise line to become more environmentally friendly if it plans to continue serving the port.
"Regulations have been improved and have been coming with the introduction of new technologies to make the engine more efficient and reduce the emissions," Lisnard said.
Another French city, Saint-Raphael, has also instituted similar rules to curb the pollution of the water and air around the city. Other European ports such as Santorini and Venice have also cited cruise ships as a significant cause of overtourism across the region.
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