Roman Abramovich’s yachts are said to emit more carbon than many small countries. This is unsustainable, and wrong
“The rich gazed at their superyachts, and decided they were not enough. The new breed of megayachts, which are at least 70 metres (230ft) in length, may be the most expensive moveable assets ever created.”
“First and foremost, owning a megayacht is the most polluting activity a single person can possibly engage in. Abramovich’s yachts emit more than 22,000 tonnes of carbon every year, which is more than some small countries. Even flying long-haul every day of the year, or air-conditioning a sprawling palace, would not get close to those emissions levels.
The bulk of these emissions happen whether or not a yacht actually travels anywhere. Simply owning one – or indeed building one – is an act of enormous climate vandalism.”
Container ships provide an important service for many many people, and are actually one of our most efficient forms of goods transport. These personal yachts on the other hand are pure vanity projects
There is no reason that cargo ships should be able to burn arbitrarily dirty fuel in international waters basically constantly.
There are plenty of comfort actions that are carbon costly, but that doesnt excuse the big polluters. It's like saying people like their showers too hot so we should take colder showers before Maersk has to upgrade their systems.
If they run the same number of hours go after the yacht; however, the atmosphere doesn't care about per person use, so overall burn is really what I'm more concerned about.