Greenland Parliament Backs Scrubber Discharge Ban for Ships in Its Waters

Greenland’s parliament has unanimously backed a phased ban on discharges from ships’ exhaust gas cleaning systems, adding another layer of environmental restrictions for vessels operating in Arctic waters and potentially affecting cruise operators using scrubbers to meet international emissions standards.

The Inatsisartut voted on Nov. 4 to direct the Greenlandic government to introduce the restrictions. Under the adopted proposal, discharges from open-loop scrubbers will be prohibited in Greenland’s ports, internal waters and territorial sea from July 1, 2027. From July 1, 2029, the prohibition will extend to all scrubber systems, including closed-loop installations.

The measure follows a proposal by parliamentarian Justus Hansen of the Demokraatit party. The government had proposed the phased timetable in line with an emerging regional approach under the OSPAR Convention, which covers the Northeast Atlantic.

Scrubbers, formally known as exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS), allow ships to continue burning higher-sulfur fuel by washing sulfur oxides from exhaust gases. Open-loop systems use seawater and discharge the resulting wastewater directly overboard, carrying sulfur compounds, heavy metals and other contaminants into the marine environment. Closed-loop systems recirculate the washwater but can also generate waste streams requiring disposal.

The Clean Arctic Alliance welcomed the decision. Its lead adviser, Sian Prior, said: “Scrubbers simply offer a loophole for ships to continue burning the most polluting fuels – instead of using widely available cleaner fuels such as marine gas oil.”

The alliance argues that scrubbers shift pollution from the atmosphere into the ocean while allowing ships to continue burning residual fuels that generate higher levels of particulate matter and black carbon than cleaner distillate fuels.

The decision comes amid a broader tightening of shipping regulations across the Arctic, although the different measures address distinct pollution problems.

On March 1, 2026, the Canadian Arctic and the Norwegian Sea became IMO-designated Emission Control Areas (ECAs). The designations require ships to meet stricter nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide emission standards, including a maximum sulfur content of 0.10% in marine fuel. Norway already had an ECA covering its North Sea waters.

Svalbard has gone further on fuel quality. Since January 2022, ships entering its territorial waters have been prohibited from using or carrying petroleum-based fuels with properties exceeding those permitted for marine gas oil.

The wider Arctic, however, still lacks a comprehensive ECA covering the entire region. Nor do existing ECAs eliminate the use of heavy fuel oil in every circumstance: scrubber-equipped vessels can generally meet sulfur limits while continuing to burn residual fuels.

The IMO’s separate Arctic heavy fuel oil prohibition, adopted under MARPOL Annex I, began taking effect in July 2024 for some vessels. Certain ships meeting specified fuel-tank protection standards have until July 1, 2029, to comply. The prohibition addresses the risk and consequences of HFO spills rather than scrubber wastewater or black carbon emissions.

The impact on Greenland’s cruise industry remains unclear, as there is no publicly available breakdown of how many vessels calling in Greenlandic waters are equipped with scrubbers. Greenland and its surrounding waters received approximately 94,000 cruise passengers across 232 voyages in 2025, according to the Arctic Council. 

For comparison, global fleet data compiled by S&P Global in 2025 identified 338 passenger and cruise ships equipped with scrubbers. Vessels affected by the new restrictions would not necessarily have to abandon Greenlandic itineraries or remove their equipment, however. Operators could instead switch to compliant, lower-sulfur fuels such as marine gas oil (MGO), avoiding the need to discharge scrubber wastewater.

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