Green cruising: eco-friendly technologies on cruise ships

Abstract

Cruise lines are believed to be the world’s t worst polluters. Even though cruise ships represent only 1% of the global fleet, they have quite a big rate of black carbon emission according to the European Maritime Transport Report 2021. Besides CO2 emissions there are lots of other pollutants like sewage water, gray water, oily bilge water, hazardous and bio-wastes that impact the environment heavily. To overcome the challenge and improve passengers’ perception of the sector, the industry shifts the spotlight to responsible tourism and extensively invests in green technologies. The industry promises net zero carbon neutral cruising by 2050. However, some industry experts and NGOs still sound the alarm regarding not sufficient measures and activities to be taken to ensure eco-friendly tourism.
The paper aims at analyzing the progress made by cruise society regarding responsible tourism, namely the effectiveness of green technologies on cruise ships to assess the sufficiency of the current activities. The results of the research provide useful information on tracking the results of the implementation of the intended goals and benchmarking of cruising sustainable development.