Greenland Approves Phased Ban on Scrubber Discharges Starting in 2027

Greenland's parliament, Inatsisartut, unanimously approved a phased ban on wastewater discharges from ships' exhaust gas scrubbers. The measure will cover the country's ports, internal waters and territorial sea, and instructs the government to introduce the restriction in stages, starting with open-loop systems from July 1, 2027, and extending to closed-loop and hybrid systems from July 1, 2029.

Sources differ on the exact date of the vote. According to Safety4Sea, citing local outlet Sermitsiaq, the decision was adopted by Inatsisartut on October 8, following a debate on a proposal put forward by MP Justus Hansen of the Demokraatit party, with the government-backed amendment receiving 21 votes in favor, with no votes against and no abstentions. GCaptain, however, states that parliament voted on November 4, while Splash247 indicates that the unanimous vote took place "last month" relative to its November 4 publication.

The decision aligns with the regional approach of OSPAR, the convention for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic, which in June 2025 agreed on a phased ban on scrubber discharges in ports and internal waters, with restrictions on open-loop systems from July 2027 and on all systems from July 2029. Greenland's government had announced in December 2025 its intention to follow that scheme, and the new rule goes further by extending the restrictions to the territorial sea as well, something OSPAR currently only recommends. The measure comes after Denmark banned open-loop discharges in July 2025, with Sweden and Finland applying similar restrictions.

The approval drew reactions from environmental organizations. Kaare Press-Kristensen, senior advisor at Green Global Future, called the decision an important step toward cleaner shipping and a signal for other countries to adopt similar measures. Sian Prior, senior advisor at the Clean Arctic Alliance, called on the International Maritime Organization to move toward a global ban starting in the Arctic, and urged Iceland, Norway and Canada to adopt equivalent restrictions; she also argued that scrubbers offer ships a way to keep burning the most polluting fuels instead of switching to cleaner fuels such as marine gas oil. Environmental groups also support a proposed green shipping corridor between Nuuk and Reykjavik that would require vessels to burn marine gas oil.

The impact on Greenland's cruise industry remains unclear, as there is no public information on how many vessels operating in its 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 2025 data from S&P Global identified 338 passenger and cruise vessels fitted with scrubbers worldwide. The rule adds to other recent restrictions in the Arctic, such as the designation of emission control areas in the Canadian Arctic and the Norwegian Sea from March 1, 2026, fuel limitations in effect in Svalbard since January 2022, and the IMO's heavy fuel oil ban, which began to apply in July 2024.