Greenland's parliament has voted unanimously to phase out discharges from ships' exhaust gas cleaning systems in its waters, adding a further environmental restriction for vessels operating in the Arctic.
The Inatsisartut voted on 4 November to direct the Greenlandic government to introduce the restrictions, gCaptain reported. Discharges from open-loop scrubbers will be prohibited in Greenland's ports, internal waters and territorial sea from 1 July 2027. From 1 July 2029 the prohibition extends to all scrubber systems, including closed-loop installations.
The measure follows a proposal by the 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, allow ships to carry on burning higher-sulphur fuel by washing sulphur oxides out of the exhaust. Open-loop systems use seawater and discharge the resulting wastewater directly overboard, carrying sulphur compounds, heavy metals and other contaminants into the marine environment. Closed-loop systems recirculate the washwater but can also generate waste streams that require 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 vote comes amid a broader tightening of shipping rules across the Arctic. On 1 March 2026 the Canadian Arctic and the Norwegian Sea became Emission Control Areas designated by the International Maritime Organization, requiring stricter nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide standards, including a maximum sulphur content of 0.10 per cent in marine fuel. Svalbard has gone further: 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 still lacks a comprehensive Emission Control Area covering the whole region, and the existing areas do not eliminate heavy fuel oil in every circumstance, because scrubber-equipped vessels can generally meet sulphur limits while continuing to burn residual fuels.
The effect on Greenland's cruise business is unclear. There is no publicly available breakdown of how many vessels calling in Greenlandic waters are fitted with scrubbers. Greenland and its surrounding waters received approximately 94,000 cruise passengers across 232 voyages in 2025, according to the Arctic Council, while global fleet data compiled by S&P Global in 2025 identified 338 passenger and cruise ships equipped with the systems.
Operators affected by the restrictions would not necessarily have to abandon Greenlandic itineraries or remove the equipment. They could instead switch to compliant lower-sulphur fuels such as marine gas oil, which removes the need to discharge scrubber wastewater at all.
It is at this point that the regulation becomes geographically interesting. Nothing in the vote changes the fuel, the equipment, or the quantity of sulphur involved. What changes is where the sulphur is permitted to arrive.
A ship burning residual fuel through an open-loop scrubber will, from July 2027, be in breach of Greenlandic rules inside Greenland's territorial sea and compliant immediately outside it. The vessel does not alter. The sulphur does not alter. The boundary alters.
Our analysts note that the 2029 stage sharpens the position considerably. Once closed-loop systems are covered as well, the washwater has to stay aboard, which converts a cleaning system into a tank. The exhaust is still scrubbed. The sulphur is still collected. It is simply held until the ship reaches water in which releasing it is lawful.
The Department of Unnecessary Research has accordingly identified the cheapest compliance strategy available to the Arctic fleet, requiring no capital expenditure, no change of fuel and no new equipment. A ship that never enters Greenland's territorial sea is in complete compliance with every rule Greenland has, and always has been.