Sustainability and amen.
By Virginia López Valiente
Managing Director of Cruises News Media Group and Editor of CruisesNews magazine
Editorial from CruisesNews magazine no. 61 – June 2022
Cruise lines bear a greater responsibility than any other vacation industry to be more environmentally conscious and sustainable. Often perceived as a sector of countless megaships pushing themselves to the limit to meet the relentless demands of unchecked passengers, it is actually by far the most advanced and most invested tourism industry in ecology and sustainability. The looming specter of a climate crisis has brought the cruise industry into sharper focus, under more scrutiny than ever before.
This sector represents only 2% of the overall travel industry, being only a small part of the 1.5 billion individual trips made per year, but with the apparent burden of having to bear, in the eyes of many, the total responsibility for global warming.
For better or for worse, the pandemic has accelerated the change in the cruise industry forever, and companies have invested even more in environmental management for financial and political reasons as well.
While protecting all environments may seem challenging, some places around the world are very heavily protected. The Norwegian fjords are some of the most breathtaking areas of natural beauty on Earth, and as such, they have become a popular cruise destination. In recent years, the increase in traffic through these waters has led governments to focus more on addressing concerns about the environmental impact of cruises. Low-emission standards are already in place, but the goal is to achieve completely emission-free cruising in the fjords and surrounding waters by 2026. To take another, more distant example, the Galápagos Islands are another heavily protected region, and cruises are now limited to a maximum of 100 passengers. The Galápagos National Park Authority manages the routes around the islands and allocates slots for ships to visit them.
The challenge for both scenarios in Norway and the Galapagos is the desire and even the need for tourism to economically sustain the areas while maintaining the natural beauty that makes them so attractive.
Of course, huge technological innovations are already being made to reduce emissions, from the sometimes questioned scrubbers, liquefied natural gas, fuel cells, storing scrubber sludge on board to safely deposit it on land instead of at sea, and connecting to shore power while the ship is in port.
Unfortunately, at this time, the global infrastructure simply doesn't exist to provide the types of fuel that will be needed in the future. While there will be a significant increase in LNG availability in the coming years, this process will take time and will still not cover all ports visited by cruise ships, not to mention that there are more ships equipped to connect to shore power and shut down their engines than there are ports with the infrastructure to do so.
We will discuss the rest of the industry's activities, such as waste management, in another chapter, mainly due to its length. Let's not forget that a cruise ship is not a means of transport where you spend a few hours; it is a place where hundreds or thousands of people live for at least a few days, and we have the childish habit of comparing them to cars, but not to airplanes, which, although also means of transport, are much less questioned and have a much higher impact on the environment.
