superyachts emissions

Superyachts For The Super Rich Cause A Whole Lot Of Environmental Damage

Few status symbols for the Super Rich stand out more than superyachts. Members of royal families, oligarchs, and billionaires are known to crave the elegance and indulgence, the refined taste and unparalleled luxury that these enormous floating homes offer. Superyachts are often longer than 100 feet in length and are customized to meet the lavish vision of their owners. Money is no object for those who desire opulence and paradise on the seas.

What these superyacht owners don’t pay much attention to as a general rule are the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their floating paradises. In fact, many of these Super Rich obtained their wealth from industries that emit enormous amounts of GHGs . Don’t these 1% have a responsibility to cut emissions, not only in their business enterprises but in their personal carbon footprints? The most well-off do have the highest carbon lifestyles, after all.

Analysts from the World Inequality Lab, which is led by the Paris School of Economics and University of California at Berkeley, have generated an alternative assessment replacing gross domestic product with varying measures of consumer income. It seems that personal wealth does more than national wealth to explain the sources of emissions.

So climate progress means first curbing the carbon output of the wealthier among us.

The richest 1% of the world’s population produced as much carbon pollution in 2019 as the 5 billion people who made up the poorest two-thirds of humanity, according to Oxfam , a global organization fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. These world’s wealthiest 10% account for half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Research shows that, for example, to even out carbon footprints in the US, its top emitters would have to cut pollution by 87% by 2030 while the bottom half could actually increase theirs by 3%.

The Super Rich’s emissions are derived from a variety of toys and indulgences, including mansions and jet-set travel. But superyachts are their single largest source of GHG emissions — the annual CO2 emissions of the top 300 superyachts are almost 285,000 tons.

Superyachts — the Super Rich’s single-most polluting asset — saw a 77% surge in sales in 2021. The Superyacht Directory is the world’s largest database of private luxury yachts, with over 12,000 megayachts listed. A few decades ago that number was just one-third of today’s totals.

Here’s the estimated breakout of superyachts’ usage and their resulting emissions.

• Yachts spend 10% to 20% of the year sailing and relying on engine power.
• The boats reach top speed only 0.1% of the year.
• Most of the time superyachts are floating hotels — and that means they need generators for their power. Generators emit even more CO2.

Lifestyle social scientist Gregory Salle has categorized superyachts as a form of ecocide . “Ecocide is something that causes deep harm, harm that is lasting over time. You could apply this to what [superyachts] are doing,” he points out, not just on an individual level but one that is also “global.”

Superyachts are also more than climate polluters. They also have outsized environmental impacts like wastewater, noise and light pollution, particulate matter in exhaust, and local dockage contamination. Yachts are exempt from International Marine Organization emission rules, so truly accurate emissions of any boat are difficult to discern. Existing carbon emissions calculators about Superyachts are inconclusive, as they rely on voluntarily reported data and estimated tons of diesel fuel.

Using the International Maritime Organization’s data, Malcolm Jacotine of the superyacht consultancy firm Three Sixty Marine estimates yachting emissions will hit 10 million tons by 2030 if the industry takes a “business as usual” approach.

According to Boat International , former footballer Beckham owns a superyacht that is powered by twin MTU diesel engines that can reach a top speed of 30 knots. UFC fighter Conor McGregor has a Tecnomar For Lamborghini 63 yacht. Tennis star Rafael Nadal is the owner of a Sunreef 80 Power superyacht that is 23.95 meters and features a flybridge with a bar and barbecue, a stern garage for a jet ski, an elegant interior in cream and coffee tones, and 360 square meters of living space. The 65 meter Codecasa yacht Main is owned by Giorgio Armani. The 93 meter sailing yacht Eos was bought by fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg and her husband IAC Chairman Barry Diller.

Attempts to Move Superyachts toward Sustainability

Shipyards and engineers are beginning to add sustainable features to new builds, including using recycled materials. New types of fuel could also cut emissions. And there are some owners who are attempting to limit some of their superyacht’s environmental damage potential.

One such owner is Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, whose $500 million superyacht Koru incorporates sails to help power its voyage. It is the largest sailing yacht in the world, according to Oceanco , the Dutch company that built it. When not under wind power, however, Koru does rely on sports diesel-powered motors. Oxfam estimates that the 127 meter vessel has emitted 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the past year, an amount equal to the annual emissions of 445 average US residents.

Koru’s companion yacht, Abeona, is a 75-meter support motor yacht that functions like a garage with a helicopter pad and jet skis — Abeona’s emissions aren’t generally considered as part of the Bezos fleet.

A few years ago the Yacht Club de Monaco upgraded its dockside charging facilities with a pair of AQUA SuperPower 2nd-generation fast chargers to serve the growing electric boat yacht market . The rationale was to build up its reputation for endorsing sustainable mobility. Similar stations were installed at the marina Cala del Forte in Ventimiglia, which is also owned by Monaco Port’s Société Monégasque Internationale Portuaire (SMIP), in order to “expand the company, push cross border collaboration, and demonstrate its philosophy of sustainable port management and ecological responsibility.”

McKinsey has reported that 40% of millennials are voicing concerns regarding the environmental footprint of their boats, a sentiment echoed by 28% of Gen Xers and 24% of baby boomers. Additionally, interest in alternatively fueled recreational boats is significantly higher among millennials, with 60% expressing interest, as opposed to 45% of Gen Xers and 33% of baby boomers.

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil is an option that some experts believe is a viable alternative to diesel because there is no need to modify existing superyachts’ engines or generators. It is made by using recycled sunflower oil. First, it undergoes hydro-treatment at high temperatures and pressures, where hydrogen is added to remove the oxygen. There are claims that it offers a 90% reduction in C02 emissions on the basis that it is made from recycled oil – having already made its environmental impact. The short term challenges of HVO have focused on the availability, production, and higher cost compared to diesel.

Latest CleanTechnica.TV Videos

CleanTechnica's Comment Policy

Share this story!

Carolyn fortuna.

Carolyn Fortuna, PhD, is a writer, researcher, and educator with a lifelong dedication to ecojustice. Carolyn has won awards from the Anti-Defamation League, The International Literacy Association, and The Leavey Foundation. Carolyn invest in Tesla and owns a 2022 Tesla Model Y -- as well as a 2017 Chevy Bolt. Buying a Tesla? Use my referral link: https://ts.la/carolyn80886 Please follow Carolyn on Substack: https://carolynfortuna.substack.com/.

Carolyn Fortuna has 1411 posts and counting. See all posts by Carolyn Fortuna

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Superyachts aim to go green — but at what cost?

• Superyachts aim to go green — but at what cost? on x (opens in a new window)
• Superyachts aim to go green — but at what cost? on facebook (opens in a new window)
• Superyachts aim to go green — but at what cost? on linkedin (opens in a new window)
• Superyachts aim to go green — but at what cost? on whatsapp (opens in a new window)

Victor Mallet

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

It is hard to think of a more visible manifestation of great wealth and excessive consumption than a superyacht, as Russian oligarchs have discovered to their cost, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

As western governments began detaining these very obvious luxury assets at harbours and shipyards around the world in successive rounds of economic sanctions aimed at Moscow, the targeted billionaires directed crews to steer the vessels to safe havens such as the Maldives in the Indian Ocean or Turkey in the Mediterranean. Roman Abramovich’s 163-metre Eclipse, one of the world’s largest superyachts and estimated to cost more than $1bn, found refuge in the Turkish port of Marmaris.

Long before the latest Ukraine war, however, the superyacht industry faced a problem unrelated to any support the ships’ wealthy owners may have provided to warmongering authoritarian regimes: their impact on the environment and the impression they gave that the rich could not care less about climate change.

Most superyachts — typically defined as a leisure vessel more than 30 metres or 100ft in length — are essentially motor vessels like small cruise liners, catering to proprietors or charterers and a few pampered guests. The biggest have helicopter pads, swimming pools and gyms as well as luxury suites. Some even have mini-submarines.

Very few are sailing yachts, and most of them consume vast quantities of diesel. Only now are manufacturers starting to develop new technologies such as hydrogen-powered electric propulsion that will cut emissions.

In the meantime, building the boats, operating them and, eventually, scrapping them all have a damaging effect on the environment. The same is true of aircraft and cars, but the very visibility of superyachts in tourist hotspots, makes their ecological footprint an increasingly sensitive topic. The global fleet has grown more than sixfold since 1985 to reach more than 5,200, according to Superyacht Times . And the fleet cruises the world’s vulnerable oceans.

“For sure, now it’s really high up the agenda — there’s been a fundamental shift,” says Monaco-based superyacht designer Espen Oeino, who reckons it is only in the past few years that most proprietors have really started to pay attention to yacht emissions. Clients ask him what can be done to reduce energy consumption onboard, both for propulsion and for the so-called “hotel load” of air-conditioning and other services, and even how to build the boat in the first place in a responsible way.

Rob Doyle, another naval architect who designs superyachts and is based in Kinsale in Ireland, agrees that more owners are beginning to take notice of the need to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment, though many are still concerned about the cost. “There is still a huge amount of greenwashing,” he says. “You look at the magazines and you’ll never see a bad superyacht.”

And bad they often are. Research by anthropologists Beatriz Barros and Richard Wilk of Indiana University into the carbon footprints of the super-rich found that yachts contributed an outsized share of the carbon emissions of the billionaires who own them — far more than their private jets or mansions.

For former Chelsea Football Club owner Abramovich, for example, of the 31,200 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent he is calculated to have emitted in 2018, no less than 22,400 tonnes came from his yachts. Yacht emissions for Bernard Arnault, owner of LVMH and France’s richest man, accounted for nearly 9,000 tonnes of his total of 10,400 tonnes.

There are other ways for the wealthy to be embarrassed by their superyachts. Dutch shipyard Oceanco is facing resistance from angry locals after asking the city of Rotterdam to temporarily dismantle the old Koningshaven Bridge so that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s new three-masted vessel — this one is a sailing yacht costing hundreds of millions of dollars — can reach the port and the open sea.

But the impact on the climate is still the environmental whale in the room for yacht owners, builders and designers: Bill Gates and Elon Musk are both big carbon emitters, but their 2018 numbers were much lower than those of their fellow billionaires because they did not have yachts, the Barros-Wilk paper showed.

The accelerating effort to green superyachts reflects similar moves in the aircraft and vehicle industries to adopt new technologies and systems that help to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions and other pollution.

For superyacht designers and builders, the process starts with the shape of the hull or hulls, because there are few things so wasteful of energy as pushing a heavy metal or composite vessel through a fluid as dense as water. For both Oeino and Doyle, this search for what Oeino calls the “geometry of an easily driven hull” means looking at multihulls (catamarans or trimarans) for the next generation of big yachts, because they are designed to skim along the surface of the sea rather than laboriously plough through it, even if there are obvious constraints on weight and what you can do with the interior space.

Next, propulsion. There are already diesel-electric boats in service, which use diesel generators running at optimum revolutions (more economical, less polluting) to power electric motors, and, in future, the idea is to run the electric motors with the output from hydrogen fuel cells.

Then there is the electricity needed for the yacht’s hotel load, principally air-conditioning and the making of fresh water from seawater, but also lights and other electrical systems. Solar panels can produce some power but rarely enough even to run a present-day superyacht at anchor, so to charge batteries and run the boat, some other form of carbon-free electricity generation is needed to replace the diesel generators widely in use today.

For Barros and Wilk, none of this can justify owning any kind of superyacht. They write: “While many billionaires have taken pro-environmental actions in their personal lives or their corporate connections or donate money to climate change organisations and purchase carbon offsets, none of these actions actually ‘cancels out’ their total emissions. A 90-metre yacht can be touted as energy efficient or environmentally friendly but, as critics of ‘eco-chic’ point out, it is still a huge waste of resources, a frivolous luxury in a warming world.”

But the industry is trying. Doyle’s answer, developed by his own firm and Van Geest Design, is Domus (“home” in Latin), a project for a 40-metre sailing trimaran described as “the first truly zero-emission yacht” over 750 gross tonnes, which would generate electricity to charge its batteries from solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells and its own propellers acting as dynamos when the boat is sailing.

“It came out of a conversation we had with a client,” says Doyle. “We proposed this project with fuel cells, and regenerative sailing. It’s silent . . . people just want to listen to the water and the wind coming across and not have the hum of generators or the whiff of diesel.”

People just want to listen to the water and the wind coming across and not have the hum of generators or the whiff of diesel Rob Doyle, yacht designer

Hydrogen propulsion is in its infancy for mass transport. The gas is difficult to store, though it can be made from methanol, and there is, as yet, no distribution network for the fuel. But the interest in hydrogen is just one sign of how the yacht industry is hunting for ways to lower emissions in the years ahead as the pressure from regulators — and public opinion — increases.

Oeino notes that in some places, including the World Heritage Site fjords such as Geirangerfjord in his native Norway, rules limiting emissions are already in place and becoming stricter, and will help to force the pace of the greening of ships and yachts.

The first systems for big yachts to be fully powered by renewables are likely to be the tenders, the smaller boats that ferry people to and from the shore, which are already starting to shift to electric propulsion, and the equipment that contributes to the hotel load when the ship is stationary. Hotel loads can, in any case, be reduced by sensible design and operation, given that indoor superyacht spaces are heavily air-conditioned all the time despite owners and guests spending a huge amount of their time outside, on deck.

Transocean travel with zero emissions is a much bigger ask, says Oeino. “A lot of stuff is already being implemented, but the full electric big yacht with zero emissions is still not a reality,” he explains, because it is impossible to store or produce enough energy onboard.

“It will be a combination of things that will bring us all to lower emissions and eventually zero emissions.” 

‘Yachts for science’ can be a breakthrough for explorers

For yacht owners who feel guilty not only about their environmental footprint but also about how little they use their expensive boats, Rosie O’Donnell has the perfect solution: Yachts for Science .

YFS, which its co-ordinator O’Donnell describes as “a dating agency, almost like a Tinder for the sea”, is a platform to match idle yachts and their crews with scientists in search of a vessel that can reach remote areas and allow them to research everything from coral reefs and manta rays to great white sharks. In some cases, the owners and their families like to be on board for the ride.

“It’s for people who want to be a bit philanthropic so they have got something more to talk about than sitting on the back of their boat in St Tropez drinking cocktails,” says O’Donnell. “It’s about making the ownership more worthwhile.”

The idea of YFS fits with the trend among yachtowners to commission robust so-called expedition or explorer yachts that can travel long distances, to the Antarctic for example, rather than being satisfied with something that will buzz at high speeds around the resorts of the Mediterranean or the Caribbean.

“The yachting industry is always looking for ways to reinvent itself,” says Dominic Byrne of Arksen Marine , a builder that backs YFS and is building a new range of high-tech motor yachts. “People are looking to go further afield, and they are looking to do it in an eco-friendly way as much as possible.”

This article is part of FT Wealth , a section providing in-depth coverage of philanthropy, entrepreneurs, family offices, as well as alternative and impact investment

Climate Capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics.  Explore the FT’s coverage here .

Are you curious about the FT’s environmental sustainability commitments?  Find out more about our science-based targets here

Promoted Content

Follow the topics in this article.

• Cars, bikes, planes and boats Add to myFT
• Luxury goods Add to myFT
• Climate change Add to myFT
• Pollution Add to myFT
• Emission standards Add to myFT

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

Superyachts aren’t just for the super-rich: Hundreds of scientists have used them for ocean research

For almost two years, Robert Brewin collected data from the bow of a superyacht as it sailed pristine waters from the Caribbean Sea to the Antarctic Ocean. 

The  Archimedes , a 222-foot (68-meter) “adventure” yacht then owned by the late hedge funder James Simons, boasts a gym, a jacuzzi and an elevator. But between 2018 and 2020, Brewin was concerned only with the boat’s Sea-Bird Scientific Solar Tracking Aiming System, installed to measure light reflecting off of the water. A senior lecturer at the UK’s University of Exeter, Brewin and his colleagues were analyzing microplankton — microscopic organisms at the base of the marine food chain — by studying the ocean’s color. The Sea-Bird’s readouts helped them verify satellite imagery. 

Brewin’s was not your typical superyacht itinerary, but he is one of hundreds of scientists to have used an adventure yacht — also known as expedition or explorer yachts — to conduct research on the ocean. In a  paper  published in January, Brewin and his co-authors touted the potential of “harnessing superyachts” for science, concluding that “reaching out to wealthy citizen scientists may help fill [research capability] gaps.” 

It’s a view shared — and being pushed — by the Yacht Club of Monaco and the Explorers Club, a New York City-based organization focused on exploration and science (of which, full disclosure, I am a member). In March, the groups co-hosted an environmental symposium that included an  awards ceremony  for yacht owners who “stand out for their commitment to protecting the marine environment.” The  Archimedes  won a “Science & Discovery” award. 

“If a yacht is operating 365 days a year, rather than having it sit idle it’d be much better for it to contribute a positive return through science and conservation,” says Rob McCallum, an Explorers Club fellow and founder of US-based EYOS Expeditions, which runs adventure yacht voyages. 

EYOS charters yachts from private owners for its excursions, and is a founding member of Yachts for Science, a four-year-old organization that matches privately owned yachts with scientists who need time at sea. (Other members include yacht builder Arksen, media firm BOAT International, and nonprofits Nekton Foundation and Ocean Family Foundation.) Yachts for Science will enable about $1 million worth of donated yacht time this year, McCallum says, a figure he expects to hit $15 million by 2029. 

“There’s a personal satisfaction that we are contributing to something that is bigger than us,” says Tom Peterson, who co-owns an insurance underwriting company in California and has what he jokingly refers to as a “mini superyacht.” Every year for the past decade, Peterson has donated about 15 to 20 days of time and fuel on the 24-meter  Valkyrie  to scientists, who he takes out himself as a licensed captain and former scuba dive operator. He often works with the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, and allows researchers to stay aboard for days at a time instead of having to constantly make the 1.5-hour trip to and from shore. 

To link up with scientists, Peterson works with the International SeaKeepers Society, a Florida-based nonprofit that engages the yachting community to support ocean conservation and research. “The more we understand things about the ocean in general, the better we all are in the long run,” he says. 

When “superyacht” and “the environment” appear in the same sentence, it’s usually in a different context. In 2019,  one study estimated  that a single 71-meter superyacht has the same annual carbon footprint as about 200 cars. In 2021, another  paper  found that superyachts were the single greatest contributor to the carbon footprint of 20 of the world’s most prominent billionaires, accounting for 64% of their combined emissions.

“If you really want to respect the environment, you can just go surf,” says Grégory Salle, a senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and author of the book  Superyachts: Luxury, Tranquility and Ecocide . Salle is open to the idea that superyachts could be used to advance scientific research, but says it’s contradictory for anyone to buy a superyacht and claim to be truly concerned about the environment.

McCallum says people who own adventure yachts tend to be younger than your standard superyacht owner, and have a particular interest in remote and pristine places. “They’re not the sort of people that are content to just hang out in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean,” he says. “Antarctica, the Arctic, the remote Indian Ocean, the remote Pacific Ocean, the Subantarctic islands… that’s where you’re going to find us delivering our services.”

Explorer yachts aren’t the only way scientists can reach those destinations, but demand for dedicated research vessels does outstrip available supply. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), arguably the world’s greatest collector of oceanographic data, has a fleet of  15 research and survey vessels  for the use of its scientists. Academic researchers can also apply to use the fleet, often at a subsidized rate. But scientists request roughly 15,000 to 20,000 days of boat time every year. In 2019, NOAA was able to fill just 2,300 of them, according to an internal study.

That gap is particularly problematic as the planet warms. Oceans provide services that scientists call “ existentially important ,” producing more than  half of the oxygen we breathe  and serving as the world’s  largest carbon sink . They also absorb  30% of our carbon emissions  and  90% of the excess heat generated by them .

G. Mark Miller, a retired NOAA Corps officer who was in charge of several of the agency’s research vessels, has a different solution in mind when it comes to bolstering ocean research: smaller boats, fit for purpose. Superyachts can cost north of $500 million, he says; “why don’t we build a hundred $5 million vessels and flood the ocean science community?” 

After leaving NOAA, Miller in 2021 launched Virginia-based Greenwater Marine Sciences Offshore with a vision of building a global fleet of research vessels and offering their use at affordable prices. He says hiring a NOAA boat can cost scientists between $20,000 and $100,000 per day. GMSO plans to charge less than $10,000 a day for most missions. The company says it’s close to acquiring its first three vessels.

Miller hopes his business model will help scientists conduct the work they need to — particularly in under-served regions like the Asia-Pacific — without worrying about getting a luxury yacht covered in “muddy worms, plankton goo, dead fish [and] whale snot.” He describes yacht owners donating boat time to scientists as “better than nothing,” and says it can help get regular people interested in science and exploration. 

Christopher Walsh, captain of the  Archimedes , says he and his crew love taking part in science initiatives, especially when there’s an educational component. “I get a real thrill when we can stream to the classrooms — you can’t imagine the enthusiasm the kids display,” Walsh says. “That gives me a lot of hope for the future.”

Latest in Environment

The Hague bans ads for petrol cars and cruise ships that boost ‘the Godfathers of climate chaos’

Once vibrant, now desolate: Drought ravages Greece’s lakes, leaving a lifeless landscape

Buckingham Palace is clashing with animal rights groups over the guards’ iconic bearskin caps

Americans’ retirement investments are at the mercy of the culture wars

Colorado home of National Mining Museum dubious about plan to ‘remine’ gold from local mine waste

The comeback of nuclear energy: Why asset managers are betting big

Most popular.

Protecting a billionaire CEO costs millions. Here’s how the world’s biggest companies measure up

Elon Musk faces moment of truth in Europe as buyers turn their backs on Tesla

China’s startup scene is dead as investors pull out—’Today, we are like lepers’

Amazon CEO orders 5-day office return, announces cuts to management

The top 4 states where the most young and rich Americans are moving to

Young British men are NEETs—not in employment, education, or training—more than women

• Subscriptions

Grab a Seat at the Captain’s Table

Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.

Join our crew and become one of the 108,868 members that receive our newsletter.

Luxury yachts are moored at the bay of Cannes during the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 15, 2024. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

As Superyachts’ Popularity Grows, So Is Their Supersized Climate Impact

Share this article.

By Jessica Nix

(Bloomberg) –Superyachts are the ultimate status symbol for royal families, oligarchs and billionaires from Jeff Bezos to Bernard Arnault. The floating palaces are a source of fascination and secrecy — and greenhouse gas emissions. 

The planet-warming pollution caused by luxury vessels that benefit the very few has led lifestyle social scientist Gregory Salle to dub them a form of “ecocide” and “conspicuous seclusion” in his new book,  Superyachts: Luxury, Tranquility and Ecocide .

There are almost 6,000 superyachts — that is, vessels over 30 meters (100 feet)  — at sea, according to a report earlier this year by media and market intelligence company SuperYacht Times. The total has quadrupled in the past three decades. 

“It’s hard to think about a sign of wealth that is more convincing than that if you possess a superyacht,” said Salle, who is a professor at France’s University of Lille. 

The concentration of wealth hasn’t just led to the superyacht explosion. It’s also led to a split in per-capita emissions, with the most well-off living the highest carbon lifestyles.

The world’s wealthiest 10% already account for half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to  Oxfam  research. The nonprofit found that it would take 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99% to emit as much carbon as one of the world’s top billionaires. The ultra rich’s emissions come from a variety of sources, including large homes and frequent jet travel. But superyachts are their single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a  2021 study .  

The annual CO2 emissions of the top 300 superyachts is almost 285,000 tons, according to Salle’s book, an amount more than the entire nation of Tonga. 

Superyachts are also more than climate polluters. Wastewater, noise and light pollution, particulate matter in exhaust, and even where the vessels dock can have an adverse effect on the local environment. Those outsize impacts add up to why Salle has dubbed the vessels a form of ecocide. 

The term — which was coined in the 1970s — refers to the willful destruction of nature and has often been used to describe the actions of the wealthy given their outsize carbon footprint. In 2021, lawyers proposed codifying ecocide into international criminal law, putting it on par with genocide. European Union lawmakers  voted to criminalize  environmental damage “comparable to ecocide” earlier this year. Whether the new law will be used to prosecute the use of superyachts remains to be seen.

Some owners are cognizant of the dangers their vessels pose to the environment. Jeff Bezos’s $500 million superyacht   Koru  set sail in April 2023 with sails to help power its voyage. It still sports diesel-powered motors, though. Oxfam estimates that the 127-meter (416-foot) vessel has emitted 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the past year, an amount equal to the annual emissions of 445 average Americans. 

That estimate is also almost certainly on the low end as the calculations account for the yacht being on standby rather than in transit. The number also doesn’t include  Koru ’s companion yacht,  Abeona , a 75-meter support motor yacht that functions like a garage with a helicopter pad and jet skis. 

The sails on Bezos’s ship are an exception: The vast majority of superyachts are solely engine-powered. Only eight new sailing builds were completed in 2023, compared to the 195 new motor yachts. 

Understanding a superyacht’s true carbon emissions is incredibly difficult because of a lack of data collected and the inherently secretive nature of yachting, according to Malcolm Jacotine, founder of the superyacht consultancy firm Three Sixty Marine. Using the International Maritime Organization’s data, Jacotine estimates yachting emissions will hit 10 million tons by 2030 if the industry takes a “business as usual” approach. 

To help owners understand their boats’ impact, he’s developed two carbon emissions calculators. They have limitations, though, because they rely on voluntarily reported data and estimated tons of diesel fuel. 

Yachts spend 10% to 20% of the year sailing and relying on engine power. The boats reach top speed only 0.1% of the year, according to Robert van Tol, executive director of the Water Revolution Foundation. The rest of the year, the vessel is a floating hotel, relying on generators that are required for a longer period of time and emit more CO2, according to Jacotine’s calculations. 

Still, emissions data is done on a boat-by-boat basis, and one yacht may travel more than another in a year, making the traveling emissions higher, according to Oxfam researchers. Yachts are exempt from International Marine Organization emission rules, so true emissions of any boat are difficult to discern. That reflects how superyachts are both ostentatious and somewhat unknowable. 

“Superyachts are made to be noticed,” Salle said. “But [they] are also vehicles that are really secretive in the sense that you can’t access the inside if you are not invited.”  

New builds are focusing less on engines reaching top speeds and more on saving energy in hotel mode. But sustainability may not be at the forefront of purchasing decisions.

“It’s not a totally rational decision to buy a yacht,” said Ralph Dazert, head of intelligence at the media and market insight company SuperYacht Times. “It’s quite an emotional thing because it costs you an absolute fortune.” 

In 2023, the total value of yachts sold totaled €4.6 billion ($4.9 billion), according to Dazert. He said the movement towards sustainability will be largely driven by shipyards and engineers adding features to new builds, including using recycled materials. New types of fuel could also cut emissions. 

This year, Italian shipbuilder Sanlorenzo will test the first 50-meter steel yacht powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and another 114-meter yacht from German shipmaker Lürssen with the same technology is in production for 2025 for Apple Inc.’s former watch developer Marc Newson. 

But the larger the build, the longer the wait time. That means some of these features will take years to appear on the high seas, according to Jacotine.

In a bid to clean up superyachts’ image, some owners are making theirs available for research and exploration. That includes a new 195-meter yacht owned by a Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke, which is set to launch in 2026 with over 50 scientists to  study the ocean . (It’s also available for custom cruises.) 

While public scrutiny is mounting, superyachting is a client-driven industry. And for most buyers, luxury still trumps climate concerns. Salle noted that like many upscale items, superyachts aren’t just products. They’re representative of a “lifestyle,” one that right now is intimately tied to carbon-intensive activities. 

“Ecocide is something that causes deep harm, harm that is lasting over time,” Salle said. “You could apply this to what [superyachts] are doing, not just individual … but global.”

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Unlock Exclusive Insights Today!

Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.

Be the First to Know

Join the 108,868 members that receive our newsletter.

Have a news tip? Let us know.

Stay Ahead with Our Weekly ‘Dispatch’ Email

Dive into a sea of curated content with our weekly ‘Dispatch’ email. Your personal maritime briefing awaits!

Related Articles

Tugs Set to Tow Fire-Stricken SOUNION in Red Sea

ATHENS, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The operation has started to tow a Greek-registered oil tanker stranded in the Red Sea after an attack by Houthi militants last month, a shipping source told Reuters on...

Panama Canal Unveils Strategies to Combat El Niño-Induced Drought

The Panama Canal Authority has been implementing new economic and operational strategies to address water scarcity challenges posed by the 2023-2024 El Niño. At the 2025 Investors Forum, organized by...

Russian Missile Strike on Civilian Ship in Black Sea Escalates Maritime Tensions

A Russian-launched missile strike on a civilian bulk carrier in the Black Sea this week marks the first direct attack on a merchant vessel in the region since November 2023...

Why Join the gCaptain Club?

Access exclusive insights, engage in vibrant discussions, and gain perspectives from our CEO.

OUT AT SEA?

We’ve got you covered with trusted maritime and offshore news from wherever you are.

JOIN OUR CREW

Maritime and offshore news trusted by our 108,868 members delivered daily straight to your inbox.

Your Gateway to the Maritime World!

Gcaptain’s full coverage of the maritime shipping industry, including containerships, tankers, dry bulk, lng, breakbulk and more..

Privacy Overview

As Superyachts' Popularity Grows, So Is Their Supersized Climate Impact

A French sociologist characterizes the boats of the ultra rich a form of “ecocide” for the heavy toll they’re taking on the planet.

Author of the article:

You can save this article by registering for free here . Or sign-in if you have an account.

Article content

(Bloomberg) — Superyachts are the ultimate status symbol for royal families, oligarchs and billionaires from Jeff Bezos to Bernard Arnault. The floating palaces are a source of fascination and secrecy — and greenhouse gas emissions. 

As Superyachts' Popularity Grows, So Is Their Supersized Climate Impact Back to video

The planet-warming pollution caused by luxury vessels that benefit the very few has led lifestyle social scientist Gregory Salle to dub them a form of “ecocide” and “conspicuous seclusion” in his new book, Superyachts: Luxury, Tranquility and Ecocide.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

• Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.
• Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.
• Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.
• National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.
• Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.
• Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

• Access articles from across Canada with one account.
• Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.
• Enjoy additional articles per month.
• Get email updates from your favourite authors.

Sign In or Create an Account

There are almost 6,000 superyachts — that is, vessels over 30 meters (100 feet)  — at sea, according to a report earlier this year by media and market intelligence company SuperYacht Times. The total has quadrupled in the past three decades. 

“It’s hard to think about a sign of wealth that is more convincing than that if you possess a superyacht,” said Salle, who is a professor at France’s University of Lille. 

The concentration of wealth hasn’t just led to the superyacht explosion. It’s also led to a split in per-capita emissions, with the most well-off living the highest carbon lifestyles.

The world’s wealthiest 10% already account for half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to Oxfam research. The nonprofit found that it would take 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99% to emit as much carbon as one of the world’s top billionaires. The ultra rich’s emissions come from a variety of sources, including large homes and frequent jet travel. But superyachts are their single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2021 study.  

The annual CO2 emissions of the top 300 superyachts is almost 285,000 tons, according to Salle’s book, an amount more than the entire nation of Tonga. 

Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.

• There was an error, please provide a valid email address.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Read more: How the World’s Richest People Are Driving Global Warming

Superyachts are also more than climate polluters. Wastewater, noise and light pollution, particulate matter in exhaust, and even where the vessels dock can have an adverse effect on the local environment. Those outsize impacts add up to why Salle has dubbed the vessels a form of ecocide. 

The term — which was coined in the 1970s — refers to the willful destruction of nature and has often been used to describe the actions of the wealthy given their outsize carbon footprint. In 2021, lawyers proposed codifying ecocide into international criminal law, putting it on par with genocide. European Union lawmakers voted to criminalize environmental damage “comparable to ecocide” earlier this year. Whether the new law will be used to prosecute the use of superyachts remains to be seen.

Some owners are cognizant of the dangers their vessels pose to the environment. Jeff Bezos’s $500 million superyacht Koru set sail in April 2023 with sails to help power its voyage. It still sports diesel-powered motors, though. Oxfam estimates that the 127-meter (416-foot) vessel has emitted 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the past year, an amount equal to the annual emissions of 445 average Americans. 

That estimate is also almost certainly on the low end as the calculations account for the yacht being on standby rather than in transit. The number also doesn’t include Koru’s companion yacht, Abeona, a 75-meter support motor yacht that functions like a garage with a helicopter pad and jet skis. 

The sails on Bezos’s ship are an exception: The vast majority of superyachts are solely engine-powered. Only eight new sailing builds were completed in 2023, compared to the 195 new motor yachts. 

Understanding a superyacht’s true carbon emissions is incredibly difficult because of a lack of data collected and the inherently secretive nature of yachting, according to Malcolm Jacotine, founder of the superyacht consultancy firm Three Sixty Marine. Using the International Maritime Organization’s data, Jacotine estimates yachting emissions will hit 10 million tons by 2030 if the industry takes a “business as usual” approach. 

To help owners understand their boats’ impact, he’s developed two carbon emissions calculators. They have limitations, though, because they rely on voluntarily reported data and estimated tons of diesel fuel. 

Yachts spend 10% to 20% of the year sailing and relying on engine power. The boats reach top speed only 0.1% of the year, according to Robert van Tol, executive director of the Water Revolution Foundation. The rest of the year, the vessel is a floating hotel, relying on generators that are required for a longer period of time and emit more CO2, according to Jacotine’s calculations. 

Still, emissions data is done on a boat-by-boat basis, and one yacht may travel more than another in a year, making the traveling emissions higher, according to Oxfam researchers. Yachts are exempt from International Marine Organization emission rules, so true emissions of any boat are difficult to discern. That reflects how superyachts are both ostentatious and somewhat unknowable. 

“Superyachts are made to be noticed,” Salle said. “But [they] are also vehicles that are really secretive in the sense that you can’t access the inside if you are not invited.”  

Read more: Hydrogen-Powered Private Jets Can Cut Emissions — If They Can Get Off the Ground

New builds are focusing less on engines reaching top speeds and more on saving energy in hotel mode. But sustainability may not be at the forefront of purchasing decisions.

“It’s not a totally rational decision to buy a yacht,” said Ralph Dazert, head of intelligence at the media and market insight company SuperYacht Times. “It’s quite an emotional thing because it costs you an absolute fortune.” 

In 2023, the total value of yachts sold totaled €4.6 billion ($4.9 billion), according to Dazert. He said the movement towards sustainability will be largely driven by shipyards and engineers adding features to new builds, including using recycled materials. New types of fuel could also cut emissions. 

This year, Italian shipbuilder Sanlorenzo will test the first 50-meter steel yacht powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and another 114-meter yacht from German shipmaker Lürssen with the same technology is in production for 2025 for Apple Inc.’s former watch developer Marc Newson. 

But the larger the build, the longer the wait time. That means some of these features will take years to appear on the high seas, according to Jacotine.

In a bid to clean up superyachts’ image, some owners are making theirs available for research and exploration. That includes a new 195-meter yacht owned by a Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke, which is set to launch in 2026 with over 50 scientists to study the ocean. (It’s also available for custom cruises.) 

While public scrutiny is mounting, superyachting is a client-driven industry. And for most buyers, luxury still trumps climate concerns. Salle noted that like many upscale items, superyachts aren’t just products. They’re representative of a “lifestyle,” one that right now is intimately tied to carbon-intensive activities. 

“Ecocide is something that causes deep harm, harm that is lasting over time,” Salle said. “You could apply this to what [superyachts] are doing, not just individual … but global.”

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Canadian miner unearths 1,094-carat diamond weeks after finding another mammoth gem

Canadians becoming more optimistic about their finances as bank of canada cuts rates, family law trumps succession law in case of man who tried to cut children's mother out of properties, subscriber only. bank of canada governor raises prospect of bigger rate cuts, air canada and its pilots reached a last-minute agreement to avert a strike. here's what we know about the deal so far.

This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here . By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy .

You've reached the 20 article limit.

You can manage saved articles in your account.

and save up to 100 articles!

Looks like you've reached your saved article limit!

You can manage your saved articles in your account and clicking the X located at the bottom right of the article.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

The Superyachts of Billionaires Are Starting to Look a Lot Like Theft

By Joe Fassler

Mr. Fassler is a journalist covering food and environmental issues.

If you’re a billionaire with a palatial boat, there’s only one thing to do in mid-May: Chart your course for Istanbul and join your fellow elites for an Oscars-style ceremony honoring the builders, designers and owners of the world’s most luxurious vessels, many of them over 200 feet long.

The nominations for the World Superyacht Awards were all delivered in 2022, and the largest contenders are essentially floating sea mansions, complete with amenities like glass elevators, glass-sided pools, Turkish baths and all-teak decks. The 223-foot Nebula, owned by the WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, comes with an air-conditioned helicopter hangar.

I hate to be a wet blanket, but the ceremony in Istanbul is disgraceful. Owning or operating a superyacht is probably the most harmful thing an individual can do to the climate. If we’re serious about avoiding climate chaos, we need to tax, or at the very least shame, these resource-hoarding behemoths out of existence. In fact, taking on the carbon aristocracy, and their most emissions-intensive modes of travel and leisure, may be the best chance we have to improve our collective climate morale and increase our appetite for personal sacrifice, from individual behavior changes to sweeping policy mandates.

On an individual basis, the superrich pollute far more than the rest of us, and travel is one of the biggest parts of that footprint. Take, for instance, Rising Sun, the 454-foot, 82-room megaship owned by the DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen. According to a 2021 analysis in the journal Sustainability, the diesel fuel powering Mr. Geffen’s boating habit spews an estimated 16,320 tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent gases into the atmosphere annually, almost 800 times what the average American generates in a year.

And that’s just a single ship. Worldwide, more than 5,500 private vessels clock in about 100 feet or longer, the size at which a yacht becomes a superyacht . This fleet pollutes as much as entire nations: The 300 biggest boats alone emit 315,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year, based on their likely usage — about as much as Burundi’s more than 10 million inhabitants. Indeed, a 200-foot vessel burns 132 gallons of diesel fuel an hour standing still and can guzzle 2,200 gallons just to travel 100 nautical miles.

Then there are the private jets, which make up a much higher overall contribution to climate change. Private aviation added 37 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2016, which rivals the annual emissions of Hong Kong or Ireland. (Private plane use has surged since then, so today’s number is likely higher.)

You’re probably thinking: But isn’t that a drop in the bucket compared with the thousands of coal plants around the world spewing carbon? It’s a common sentiment; last year, Christophe Béchu, France’s minister of the environment, dismissed calls to regulate yachts and chartered flights as “ le buzz ” — flashy, populist solutions that get people amped up but ultimately only fiddle at the margins of climate change.

But this misses a much more important point. Research in economics and psychology suggests humans are willing to behave altruistically — but only when they believe everyone is being asked to contribute. People “stop cooperating when they see that some are not doing their part,” the cognitive scientists Nicolas Baumard and Coralie Chevallier wrote last year in Le Monde.

In that sense, superpolluting yachts and jets don’t just worsen climate change; they lessen the chance that we will work together to fix it. Why bother when the luxury goods mogul Bernard Arnault is cruising around on the Symphony, a $150 million, 333-foot superyacht?

“If some people are allowed to emit 10 times as much carbon for their comfort,” Mr. Baumard and Ms. Chevallier asked, “then why restrict your meat consumption, turn down your thermostat or limit your purchases of new products?”

Whether we’re talking about voluntary changes (insulating our attics and taking public transit) or mandated ones (tolerating a wind farm on the horizon or saying goodbye to a lush lawn), the climate fight hinges, to some extent, on our willingness to participate. When the ultrarich are given a free pass, we lose faith in the value of that sacrifice.

Taxes aimed at superyachts and private jets would take some of the sting out of these conversations, helping to improve everybody’s climate morale, a term coined by the Georgetown Law professor Brian Galle. But making these overgrown toys a bit more costly isn’t likely to change the behavior of the billionaires who buy them. Instead, we can impose new social costs through good, old-fashioned shaming.

Last June, @CelebJets — a Twitter account that tracked the flights of well-known figures using public data, then calculated their carbon emissions for all to see — revealed that the influencer Kylie Jenner took a 17-minute flight between two regional airports in California. One Twitter user wrote , “kylie jenner is out here taking 3 minute flights with her private jet, but I’m the one who has to use paper straws.”

As media outlets around the world covered the backlash, other celebrities like Drake and Taylor Swift scrambled to defend their heavy reliance on private plane travel. (Twitter suspended the @CelebJets account in December after Elon Musk, a frequent target of jet-tracking accounts, acquired the platform.)

There’s a lesson here: Hugely disproportionate per capita emissions get people angry. And they should. When billionaires squander our shared supply of resources on ridiculous boats or cushy chartered flights, it shortens the span of time available for the rest of us before the effects of warming become truly devastating. In this light, superyachts and private planes start to look less like extravagance and more like theft.

Change can happen — and quickly. French officials are exploring curbing private plane travel. And just last week — after sustained pressure from activists — Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam announced it would ban private jets as a climate-saving measure.

Even in the United States, carbon shaming can have outsize impact. Richard Aboulafia, who’s been an aviation industry consultant and analyst for 35 years, says that cleaner, greener aviation, from all-electric city hoppers to a new class of sustainable fuels, is already on the horizon for short flights. Private aviation’s high-net-worth customers just need more incentive to adopt these new technologies. Ultimately, he says, it’s only our vigilance and pressure that will speed these changes along.

There’s a similar opportunity with superyachts. Just look at Koru, Jeff Bezos’ newly built 416-foot megaship, a three-masted schooner that can reportedly cross the Atlantic on wind power alone. It’s a start.

Even small victories challenge the standard narrative around climate change. We can say no to the idea of limitless plunder, of unjustifiable overconsumption. We can say no to the billionaires’ toys.

Joe Fassler is a journalist covering food and environmental issues. He is the author of “Light the Dark ” and the forthcoming novel “The Sky Was Ours.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram .

Private planes, mansions and superyachts: What gives billionaires like Musk and Abramovich such a massive carbon footprint

Distinguished Professor and Provost's Professor of Anthropology; Director of the Open Anthropology Institute, Indiana University

Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, Indiana University

Disclosure statement

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Indiana University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

View all partners

• Bahasa Indonesia

Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have been vying for the world’s richest person ranking all year after the former’s wealth soared a staggering US$160 billion in 2020, putting him briefly in the top spot .

Musk isn’t alone in seeing a significant increase in wealth during a year of pandemic, recession and death. Altogether, the world’s billionaires saw their wealth surge over $1.9 trillion in 2020, according to Forbes.

Those are astronomical numbers, and it’s hard to get one’s head around them without some context. As anthropologists who study energy and consumer culture, we wanted to examine how all that wealth translated into consumption and the resulting carbon footprint.

Walking in a billionaire’s shoes

We found that billionaires have carbon footprints that can be thousands of times higher than those of average Americans.

The wealthy own yachts, planes and multiple mansions, all of which contribute greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. For example, a superyacht with a permanent crew, helicopter pad, submarines and pools emits about 7,020 tons of CO2 a year, according to our calculations, making it by the far worst asset to own from an environmental standpoint. Transportation and real estate make up the lion’s share of most people’s carbon footprint, so we focused on calculating those categories for each billionaire.

To pick a sample of billionaires, we started with the 2020 Forbes List of 2,095 billionaires. A random or representatives sample of billionaire carbon footprints is impossible because most wealthy people shy away from publicity , so we had to focus on those whose consumption is public knowledge. This excluded most of the superrich in Asia and the Middle East .

We combed 82 databases of public records to document billionaires’ houses, vehicles, aircraft and yachts. After an exhaustive search, we started with 20 well-known billionaires whose possessions we were able to ascertain, while trying to include some diversity in gender and geography. We have submitted our paper for peer review but plan to continue adding to our list.

We then used a wide range of sources, such as the U.S. Energy Information Administration and Carbon Footprint , to estimate the annual CO2 emissions of each house, aircraft, vehicle and yacht. In some cases we had to estimate the size of houses from satellite images or photos and the use of private aircraft and yachts by searching the popular press and drawing on other studies . Our results are based on analyzing typical use of each asset given its size and everything else we could learn.

We did not try to calculate each asset’s “ embodied carbon ” emissions – that is, how much CO2 is burned throughout the supply chain in making the product – or the emissions produced by their family, household employees or entourage. We also didn’t include the emissions of companies of which they own part or all, because that would have added another significant degree of complexity. For example, we didn’t calculate the emissions of Tesla or Amazon when calculating Musk’s or Bezos’ footprints.

In other words, these are all likely conservative estimates of how much they emit.

Your carbon footprint

To get a sense of perspective, let’s start with the carbon footprint of the average person.

Residents of the U.S., including billionaires, emitted about 15 tons of CO2 per person in 2018. The global average footprint is smaller, at just about 5 tons per person.

In contrast, the 20 people in our sample contributed an average of about 8,190 tons of CO2 in 2018. But some produced far more greenhouse gases than others.

The jet-setting billionaire

Roman Abramovich, who made most of his $19 billion fortune trading oil and gas, was the biggest polluter on our list. Outside of Russia, he is probably best known as the headline-grabbing owner of London’s Chelsea Football Club.

Abramovich cruises the Mediterranean in his superyacht, named the Eclipse , which at 162.5 meters bow to stern is the second-biggest in the world, rivaling some cruise ships. And he hops the globe on a custom-designed Boeing 767 , which boasts a 30-seat dining room. He takes shorter trips in his Gulfstream G650 jet, one of his two helicopters or the submarine on his yacht.

He maintains homes in many countries, including a mansion in London’s Kensington Park Gardens, a chateau in Cap D’Antibes in France and a 28-hectare estate in St. Barts that once belonged to David Rockefeller . In 2018, he left the U.K. and settled in Israel , where he became a dual citizen and bought a home in 2020 for $64.5 million.

We estimate that he was responsible for at least 33,859 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2018 – more than two-thirds from his yacht, which is always ready to use at a moment’s notice year-round.

Massive mansions and private jets

Bill Gates, currently the world’s fourth-richest person with $124 billion, is a “modest” polluter – by billionaire standards – and is typical of those who may not own a giant yacht but make up for it with private jets.

Co-founder of Microsoft, he retired in 2020 to manage the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest charity, with an endowment of $50 billion.

In the 1990s, Gates built Xanadu – named after the vast fictional estate in Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” – at a cost of $127 million in Medina, Washington. The giant home covers 6,131 square meters, with a 23-car garage, a 20-person cinema and 24 bathrooms. He also owns at least five other dwellings in Southern California, the San Juan Islands in Washington state, North Salem, New York, and New York City, as well as a horse farm , four private jets, a seaplane and “a collection” of helicopters .

We estimated his annual footprint at 7,493 metric tons of carbon, mostly from a lot of flying.

The environmentally minded tech CEO

South African-born Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, has a surprisingly low carbon footprint despite being the world’s second-richest person, with $177 billion – and he seems intent on setting an example for other billionaires .

He doesn’t own a superyacht and says he doesn’t even take vacations .

We calculated a relatively modest carbon footprint for him in 2018, thanks to his eight houses and one private jet. This year, his carbon footprint would be even lower because in 2020 he sold all of his houses and promised to divest the rest of his worldly possessions .

While his personal carbon footprint is still hundreds of times higher than that of an average person, he demonstrates that the superrich still have choices to make and can indeed lower their environmental impact if they so choose.

His estimated footprint from the assets we looked at was 2,084 tons in 2018.

The value of naming and shaming

The aim of our ongoing research is to get people to think about the environmental burden of wealth.

While plenty of research has shown that rich countries and wealthy people produce far more than their share of greenhouse gas emissions, these studies can feel abstract and academic, making it harder to change this behavior.

[ Like what you’ve read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter .]

We believe “shaming” – for lack of a better word – superrich people for their energy-intensive spending habits can have an important impact, revealing them as models of overconsumption that people shouldn’t emulate.

Newspapers, cities and local residents made an impact during the California droughts of 2014 and 2015 by “drought shaming” celebrities and others who were wasting water, seen in their continually green lawns . And the Swedes came up with a new term – “ flygskam ” or flying shame – to raise awareness about the climate impact of air travel.

Climate experts say that to have any hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, countries must cut their emissions in half by 2030 and eliminate them by 2050.

Asking average Americans to adopt less carbon-intensive lifestyles to achieve this goal can be galling and ineffective when it would take about 550 of their lifetimes to equal the carbon footprint of the average billionaire on our list.

• Climate change
• Carbon emissions
• Carbon footprint
• Paris Agreement
• Billionaires
• Roman Abramovich

Professor of Indigenous Cultural and Creative Industries (Identified)

Communications Director

Associate Director, Post-Award, RGCF

University Relations Manager

2024 Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellowships

The global authority in superyachting

• NEWSLETTERS
• Yachts Home
• The Superyacht Directory
• Yacht Reports
• Brokerage News
• The largest yachts in the world
• The Register
• Yacht Advice
• Yacht Design
• 12m to 24m yachts
• Monaco Yacht Show
• Builder Directory
• Designer Directory
• Interior Design Directory
• Naval Architect Directory
• Yachts for sale home
• Motor yachts
• Sailing yachts
• Explorer yachts
• Classic yachts
• Sale Broker Directory
• Charter Home
• Yachts for Charter
• Charter Destinations
• Charter Broker Directory
• Destinations Home
• Mediterranean
• South Pacific
• Rest of the World
• Boat Life Home
• Owners' Experiences
• Conservation and Philanthropy
• Interiors Suppliers
• Owners' Club
• Captains' Club
• BOAT Showcase
• Boat Presents
• Events Home
• World Superyacht Awards
• Superyacht Design Festival
• Design and Innovation Awards
• Young Designer of the Year Award
• Artistry and Craft Awards
• Explorer Yachts Summit
• Ocean Talks
• The Ocean Awards
• BOAT Connect
• Between the bays
• Golf Invitational
• BOATPro Home
• Superyacht Insight
• Global Order Book
• Premium Content
• Product Features
• Testimonials
• Pricing Plan
• Tenders & Equipment

How Emissions Regulations Are Affecting The Superyacht Industry

Regulations aimed at limiting noxious emissions from superyacht engines will be in place by January 2021. Kate Lardy investigates how these new rules are impacting the industry ahead of the approaching deadline.

“After January 1, 2021, we are out of business selling boats over 24 meters,” Pat Healey, president and CEO of Viking Yachts , announced at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show this past fall. He was referring to the upcoming deadline for all yachts over 24 meters load line length (approximately 27.5 meters or 90ft LOA) to comply with the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Tier III limits for nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. More precisely, he was speaking about the impracticality of meeting this requirement on Viking’s 92 Convertible and 93 Motor Yacht – models Healey says the yard will no longer build after January 1 2021. “[Regulators] are mandating impossible regulations that require solutions that don’t exist in today’s world,” he added.

Tier III (part of amendments made to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships adopted in 2008) came into effect on January 1, 2016. It set new NOx emission limits for new engines on vessels operating within special areas known as NOx Emission Control Areas (which currently are: the East and West Coasts of the US and Canada, and around the US Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Puerto Rico). Regulators granted a five-year exemption for vessels under 500GT to allow technology time to catch up with the requirements. Unfortunately, it hasn’t.

Viking is the first and only builder so far to announce that it will terminate production of its two largest models because of the regulations, yet the impending deadline is an issue concerning all builders of boats in the 90ft to 150ft range.

One Solution Does Not Fit All

Engine modifications aren’t enough to meet the Tier III standards – compliance requires some sort of exhaust after-treatment. The go-to solution for ships and new yachts over 500GT, which have had to comply since 2016, has been selective catalytic reduction (SCR), which uses a urea water solution to break down NOx into harmless nitrogen and water. Results have been mixed. SCR has worked for commercial ships. The challenge is that a yacht’s operating profile is critically different from a ship’s – the average engine load while cruising is lower. SCR requires that exhaust temperatures reach a certain level to decompose urea exhaust fluid to water vapour and ammonia, so it can be ineffective at idle and low speeds.

Because of a yacht’s high power-to-weight ratio, the hefty system also has more impact on a yacht’s efficiency and performance. SCR makes boats heavier, slower and more expensive to operate and maintain, says Lonni Rutt, Viking’s vice president of design and engineering. The SCR footprint, according to Rutt, is approximately one-third of each engine. “We simply don’t have the space in our engine rooms,” he says, adding that this issue is particularly critical in the 90ft to 120ft segment.

However, Richard Boggs of EnerYacht (developer of the SeaClean exhaust treatment system) says the impact extends to even larger yachts. “There isn’t that much volume in a 50-meter [164ft] boat to put the SCR systems that are on the market right now,” he says.

Then there is the added problem of incorporating a tank to hold urea. The size that the tank needs to be is still a matter of debate. In theory, a yacht needs to carry only enough urea to run the SCR within an Emission Control Area. However, assessing the amount is tricky. Too little and you run out and risk exorbitant fines for noncompliance; too much and you may incur maintenance issues. “The storage life of the diesel exhaust fluid [DEF, the urea solution] is around six months; after that time, it will crystallise and possibly block the DEF piping if the water content vaporises,” says Roger Sowerbutts, president of Horizon Yacht USA . Horizon is looking at a tank able to hold five to 10 percent of the fuel capacity.

The Quest Is On

Currently, research and development are in high gear on a growing number of after-treatment systems. Boggs is working with a European partner in the SCR retrofit business that has been conducting certified retrofits for buses in several European cities. He is marinising their tried-and-true system, which works in conjunction with EnerYacht’s highly effective diesel particulate filter system.

Yacht exhaust specialist MarQuip recently introduced a solution it calls the “most compact custom system for yachts under 500GT or 50 meters.” Prompted by a Dutch client building a 92ft semi-displacement boat, it created a case study that integrates its water injection system inside the SCR/silencer unit without having to increase the size of the engine room.

“We normally work with water-cooled exhaust systems – we combine our features to save space and fit the correct after-treatments in the same location as we had the original exhaust system,” says Jeroen van der Matten, general manager of operations for MarQuip. Installed above the engines, the system is approximately 7ft 6in by 4ft 7in for this particular 92ft boat.

Sanlorenzo is collaborating with other yacht builders to develop alternative solutions that will be lighter and more efficient than SCR at idle and low-speed navigation. “This is the direction already taken by Feadship that, recognising the same problems with SCR on mega yachts over 500GT, is now working to test and implement an innovative NOx treatment system together with the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, TNO,” says Paolo Bertetti, Sanlorenzo’s technical and R&D vice president.

Feadship’s innovation is called Oxywash. Divided into modules, it fits in tight engine rooms and does not require a urea tank. It works by making NOx water-soluble, through a catalyst when the exhaust temperature is high, or by injecting ozone when the temperature is lower. When this water-soluble NOx is immersed in seawater it becomes nitrite and nitrate, which are naturally present in seawater.

“At the moment we are running a full-scale test with regulation, which will be finished in 2020. After successful tests we will install the first system on a Feadship,” says Roderick De Vries, technical director at Feadship Koninklijke De Vries Scheepsbouw. A number of yacht builders are waiting on engine manufacturers to deliver the engine and SCR system as one unit, rather than adding on third-party after- treatment. For Horizon, Sowerbutts says that MAN has presented a good solution for the 1,650hp engine: a compact SCR with small DEF pump and no need for a compressor to assist. MTU is working on its own solution. Tobias Kohl, MTU Friedrichshafen’s senior manager for yacht applications, says the company is “putting maximum R&D efforts” into the SCR for its series 2000 engines; the first prototypes have been built and tested.

Time Crunch

The challenge is that the January 1, 2021 deadline is fast approaching. Regulators have put the onus on engine manufacturers, but they appear not ready. “Considering that we have the highest power density engine, the integration with SCR systems requires intensive testing and optimisation,” Kohl says. “Based on the technical development challenges, as well as the demanding integration work at the shipyards, we believe that a transition phase is needed for development and implementation of SCR systems in yachts requiring IMO Tier III solutions.”

The rush to 2021 concerns Nicola Onori, technical director at Overmarine . “If extension of the exemption is not granted, all yachts will be forced to install SCR systems which are still ‘prototypes.’” As it currently stands, Healey has heard that it will be at least 12 to 18 months past deadline before the engine companies are compliant. “In our view, more time is needed to allow engine manufacturers to refine SCR dedicated to yachts greater than 24 meters, less than 500GT, in order to get an overall positive effect on emissions,” Bertetti says.

Several yacht builders, including Viking Yachts, Overmarine and Sanlorenzo, have been working with the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) on a new request for an extension – a previous proposal was rejected at a May 2019 meeting of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee. Two MEPC meetings are planned for 2020 and ICOMIA is hoping to get an appeal on the agenda before January 1, 2021.

Brace for Impact

“The pending IMO implementation is well intentioned but could see an entire segment of yacht buyers walk away from our industry, causing irreparable damage,” says Kitty McGowan, president of the US Superyacht Association. Bertetti adds: “If IMO NOx Tier III will have to be applied from January 2021 we expect that clients will buy either yachts slightly below the limit of 24 meters or exceeding 30 to 35 meters, where the reduction of accommodation space necessary to install an SCR and urea tank is not affecting the number of cabins available on board.”

Onori says that the regulations could make second- hand boats – with older, more polluting engines – more appealing. Costs for new vessels will go up. How much? “The engine manufacturers can’t provide precise quotes yet,” Sowerbutts says. “The extra cost will have to include DEF or urea tank, DEF pump, SCR and probably in many cases a hull extension to accommodate everything mentioned above.” Viking estimates it would add half a million dollars to the overall cost of its 92 and 93. “We have two boats affected; some companies will be wiped out,” Healey says.

Similar yachts for sale

More stories, most recent, from our partners, sponsored listings.

672 Wine Club

• Motorcycles
• Car of the Month
• Destinations
• Men’s Fashion
• Watch Collector
• Art & Collectibles
• Vacation Homes
• Celebrity Homes
• New Construction
• Home Design
• Electronics
• Fine Dining
• Benchmark Wines
• Brian Fox Art
• Disneyland Resort
• Ka La’I Wakiki Beach
• Kalamazoo Grill
• Raffles Hotels & Resorts
• Sports & Leisure
• Health & Wellness
• Best of the Best
• The Ultimate Gift Guide
• This New Catamaran Concept Was Designed to Carry Your Bugatti Across the High Seas

The vessel will be fully unveiled at the upcoming Monaco Yacht Show.

Rachel cormack.

Digital Editor

Rachel Cormack's Most Recent Stories

• Rolex Unveils the First Authorized History of the Submariner

Meet Spitfire, a New 164-Foot Superyacht Based on a High-Performance Patrol Boat

• Share This Article

Crossing oceans with your prized four-wheeler in tow is about to get even easier.

Related Stories

• Car of the Week: This 2022 Lamborghini Countach Could Fetch More Than $3 Million at Auction
• SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Mission Returns Safely to Earth After Its Record-Breaking Flight

The Shipyard That Built the ‘Titanic’ Has Filed for Bankruptcy

Greenberg and Joy say their goal was to disrupt the tender segment with an out-of-the-box concept that could cater to the most demanding clients in the yachting industry. The resulting design, which is kind of like a cross between a support vessel, a floating garage, and a tender, offers seafarers an exciting new way to store and transport luxury vehicles. The studio says each unit will be fully bespoke, ensuring owners can create the perfect home for their fine automobiles.

It is not uncommon for catamarans to serve as shadow vessels to larger, superyachts. Multihulls are generally more stable than monohulls because their two hulls provide a wide and sturdy base. They offer a large amount of real estate onboard, too. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates reportedly owned a 224-foot support cat , for example. GreenJoy didn’t share any details regarding the shuttle’s length or volume but the fact it can comfortably accommodate a car means that it must be at least 20 feet or more. That is quite a bit smaller than Bill’s but should provide enough space for your favorite ride.

The yard didn’t share any information in terms of propulsion, either. Falcon offers tenders with hybrid diesel-electric propulsion, so perhaps buyers could opt for a sustainable shuttle that burns less fuel than traditional gas-guzzling runabouts.

GreenJoy will present the Falcon Shuttle at the 2024 Monaco Yacht Show, which is set to take place in the iconic Port Hercules from September 25 to 28. It won’t be the only exciting debut, either: Robb Report has compiled a list of the best new superyachts launching at the prestigious event. Best get yourself to France.

Rachel Cormack is a digital editor at Robb Report. She cut her teeth writing for HuffPost, Concrete Playground, and several other online publications in Australia, before moving to New York at the…

Read More On:

More marine.

What It’s Like to Watch an America’s Cup Race Right on the Water

Austin Parker Unveils Not One but 6 New Yachts at Cannes Fest

Meet the Wine Club That Thinks Differently.

Receive editor-curated reds from boutique California producers four times a year.

Give the Gift of Luxury

Latest Galleries in Marine

Spitfire Superyacht in Photos

The AX/E 22 and AX/E 25 in Photos

More from our brands, the 14 best baggy jeans and how to wear them now , fox powers past ‘smackdown’ in ‘college football friday’ debut, ‘time bandits’ canceled after one season at apple tv+, a new edition of john elderfield’s ‘frankenthaler’ shows an artist with real new york chutzpah, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors.