NABU cruise ranking reports that the cruise industry is nowhere near meeting the requirements of the Paris climate goals, as several shipping companies have no specific strategy to become green.
Specifically, a survey of the 18 largest providers on the European market showed that hardly any shipping company currently has a specific strategy to transform the fleet towards emission-free operation.
Even well known providers from Germany such as TUI Cruises or Hapag-Lloyd Cruises are not yet facing the challenge of climate protection, but even with comparatively small steps and together with MSC and the Norwegian provider Hurtigruten, they do significantly better than the industry average.
In the meantime, NABU published its three-stage timetable, to specify measures to meet the requirements of climate protection. The goals for a more sustainable industry are:
- The switch to ship propulsions systems that enable emission-free operation
- The use of 100% renewable fuels on all ships
- Battery hybrid systems and wind support as they help to significantly reduce fuel consumption while driving. These technologies must be used wherever possible, on news ships and the existing fleet needs to be retrofitted.
- Highest efficiency standards in both ship and hotel operations to enable the highest energy efficiency possible
- The use of renewably generated shore power for every ship in every port, because there are no conversion losses with the direct use of electricity (highest efficiency in relation to primary energy use)
- Offsetting and the large scale use of any kind of biofuel are no suitable measures to reduce CO2 emissions sustainably.
Leif Miller, NABU CEO commented that
Climate protection in cruise shipping is currently above all lip service. Nine out of fifteen providers commit to the Paris climate goals when asked, but they do not have a comprehensible strategy for how the targets can be achieved. There is even more lack of implementation.
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