The wake of the cruise ship, the white foam, the 300 metres long, the 5,000 passengers, the diesel engines that emit the 3–4 times the CO₂ per the passenger-kilometre than the commercial aviation (the cruise industry is the 3% of the global shipping emissions, the same as the 1% of the passenger transport, the disproportionate), the black smoke from the funnel while the ship is the docked (the generators, the hotels, the casinos, the theatres require the power even at the dock, and the worst port-air-quality in Europe: the Southampton, the Barcelona, the Venice, the 2021 ban on the large cruise ships in the Venice lagoon was the huge step), and the question that the traveller must ask: “Can the cruise be the sustainable?” The answer is the complex, and the cruise industry is the beginning to change. Here are the steps being taken and the steps you can take.

Sustainable Cruising: Steps Ships and Passengers Can Take

• The ships, the technology for the sustainability: The LNG (the Liquefied Natural Gas): the LNG is the transition fuel, the 20% less the CO₂, the near-zero the SOx and the particulate matter, and the methane-slip (the unburnt methane from the engine, the 25x the greenhouse warming than the CO₂) is the problem. The Carnival Corporation is the leading: the 11 LNG-powered ships by the 2027, the AIDA Cruises, the Costa, the P&O, and the Princess, the key brands. The essential: the LNG is the improvement on the diesel but the not the solution. The shore power: the “cold ironing”, the ship plugs into the port’s electrical grid rather than running the diesel gensets, and the reduces the port emissions by the 90%. European ports with the shore power: the Hamburg, the Kristiansand, the Bergen, the Oslo, the Northern Europe is the leading the world on the shore power. The essential problem: the shore power is the only as clean as the grid it draws from, and the cruise ship at the dock draws the 10–15 MW, the same as the 5,000 UK homes, and the port must have the infrastructure. The exhaust gas cleaning systems (the “scrubbers”): the scrubbers wash the SOx from the exhaust but the wash-water (the open-loop scrubbers) discharges the acidic and the polluted water into the sea, the closed-loop and the hybrid scrubbers are the improvement but the not the solution. More travel tips →
• The passenger, the steps you can take: The choose the smaller ship: the Hurtigruten (the Norway, the hybrid, the electric batteries for the silent sailing in the fjords, the largest battery pack on the any passenger ship, the MS Roald Amundsen, the first hybrid expedition ship, and the best sustainable cruise experience. The 7-day Norwegian coast is the ~€2,000 for the half-board), the Ponant (the French, the LNG, the 2021, the Le Commandant Charcot, the hybrid electric LNG icebreaker, and the most sustainable luxury cruise line), the Swan Hellenic (the expedition, the small, the 150 passengers, the battery-hybrid, and the most sustainable expedition cruising). The choose the destination: the Norwegian fjords are the leading the sustainability, the shore-power requirement for the 2026, the zero-emission fjord zones. The essential question: is the cruise the right holiday? The train-and-ferry combination (the Interrail, the Hurtigruten coastal ferry, the public service, not the cruise, and the combination that is the lower emissions and the better experience