Cruise activity and pollution: the case of Barcelona

Jordi Perdiguero and Alex Sanz (alex.sanz@uab.cat)
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Alex Sanz: Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

Working Papers from Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona

Abstract: One of the main causes of mortality worldwide is air pollution. To tackle this problem, local, regional and national governments have implemented policies to reduce emissions from industrial and on-road sources. However, when these policies are being designed, shipping emissions are often overlooked. There has been a drastic increase in the demand for cruises and its economic relevance is also growing in port-cities. Barcelona is Europe’s leading cruise port, and it is located near the centre of the city. In this context, this paper analyses the impact of cruise ships in the air quality of the entire city of Barcelona using a dataset with information about pollutants and the number of cruises arriving to the port. We show that there is a direct impact between cruises staying at the port and city pollution. Additionally, the size and age of the cruise also affect air quality. The larger (or newer) the cruise is, the higher the emission generated. Moreover, our simulations show that the whole city is affected by these emissions.

Keywords: Air pollution; Cruise ships emissions; Pollutants; Port externalities; Port of Barcelona; Urban air quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 L91 Q53 R49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-eur, nep-res, nep-tre and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1903

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