Environmentalists are warning that we will live in worse times if ship companies don’t abandon dirty bunker fuels and cut engine emissions by 70 to 90 percent.

That was the focus of environmental groups who pressed for pollution controls at the US-led international negotiations in Oslo, Norway from 13 to 17 November 2006.

The “green” groups are calling for cleaner ship fuels and engines, hoping that the Oslo meeting would mark a turning point in the reduction of toxic emissions from ocean-going ships.

The environmentalists believe the situation is worsening with the increase in global trade and poor pollution standards.

Hundreds of cruise calls are made to the Cayman Islands annually by the world’s leading cruise lines, while scores of cargo ships berth here to meet the needs of the highly multi-cultural population.

With an increasing number of cruise and cargo ships coming into the Islands’ main port, George Town, Cayman Net News contacted several government departments on air quality policy for ships.

The Department of Environment referred Net News to the Department of Environmental Health who recommended the Cayman Islands Maritime Authority as the body with the answers.

The latter said the Port Authority was the best agency to speak to in that regard but several attempts to contact top officers proved futile at press time.

Among the international groups seeking a cleaner environment was Friends of the Earth International who claimed that people living close to seaports face the brunt of the dangerous gases.

“People living near ports experience higher levels of cancer, heart attacks, asthma, respiratory illnesses and other cardiopulmonary problems as well as premature death,” Friends said.

“Shipping emissions also contribute to acid rain, climate change and water pollution by deposition.”

The Friends of the Earth International said that shipping emissions are projected to exceed land-based emissions in Europe and parts of the US by 2020.

Ships are estimated to generate almost 30 percent of the world’s smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions and nearly ten percent of sulphur dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

While the Department of Environment, the Department of Environmental Health and the Maritime Authority were all passing the buck to the Port Authority, Friends of the Earth International remains hopeful that emissions reduction benchmarks developed last week would be adopted and finalised by July 2007 for implementation by the International Maritime Organization, beginning 2010.

Teri Shore of Friends of the Earth in the US said: “This is a critical time to make drastic cuts in ship smokestack pollution through international standards.”

Ms Shore added, “With more evidence of people getting ill and dying early due to inhaling diesel exhaust from ships, we hope shipping nations and industry groups will finally get serious about cleaner fuels and engines and stop putting profits before people and the environment.”

Ships carry 90 percent of consumer goods to markets and the volume of trade is expected to triple in the next two decades, according to Friends of the Earth International.