How green are cruise ships really?
The cruise industry is booming. But what's driving the hype and how can cruising be made more sustainable?
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00:00Five times bigger than the Titanic, this is what the newest cruise ship looks like today and it's booking out fast.
00:07The cruise ship industry is the fastest growing tourism sector, generating billions.
00:12We visited Cozumel in Mexico to see what all the fuss is about.
00:17We wanted to know what literally powers this multi-billion dollar industry.
00:21This is the largest cruise ship ever built.
00:28It's called Icon of the Seas and measures 365 meters in length and can carry 10,000 people at a time.
00:36Just over three quarters of those are passengers.
00:40Icon of the Seas is reflective of the rise of the booming cruise industry.
00:46This ship has just launched and is already open for reservations in 2025.
00:52But what's literally powering all of this?
00:55Technically, in the case of Icon of the Seas, it's liquefied natural gas or LNG.
01:01It's seen as a more environmentally friendly fuel. More on that later.
01:06We asked its owner, Royal Caribbean, for an interview on its sustainability strategy.
01:11The company did not respond to the request before our deadline, however.
01:15But we did manage to get a hold of Carnival Corporation, the biggest cruise company in the world.
01:20One of its slogans is sustainable from ship to shore.
01:24We recognize we have a need to maintain a pristine environment because that's what people come to see.
01:32They don't want to go see things that have deteriorated.
01:35They want to see beautiful places and we try to take them there.
01:38That's Bill Burke, who's charged with making Carnival a safer company for the environment.
01:43We traveled to the Mexican island of Cozumel in the Caribbean.
01:47It's part of one of the largest barrier reefs in the world.
01:50Cruise gives you the opportunity to visit many different islands throughout your seven days.
01:58You can hit so many different ports. The ships are amazing and there's so many things to do on them.
02:04You go on the cruise for one week and you can spend $1,000, $2,000 but you have everything.
02:12We did our own internet search and found out that you can actually get a week-long cruise to the Caribbean
02:18for around $635 US dollars, plus taxes and port fees.
02:23And under the trendy banner of sustainable tourism or climate consciousness.
02:29In fact, one study says that half of all Americans believe cruise vacations are environmentally friendly.
02:35And this green badge is worn proudly by the top three cruise companies, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.
02:42Norwegian is trying out biofuel mixed blends and continues to use marine gas oil.
02:48In the longer term, it sees green methanol as a promising source of power.
02:52Carnival and Royal Caribbean continue to use traditional fuels
02:56and they both tout the current use of LNG.
02:59It is the best fuel available today for us to use from a greenhouse gas perspective.
03:05And we pioneered that within the industry.
03:08But what are the unseen environmental costs?
03:11According to one study, cruising is more than double the carbon emissions of flying and staying in a four-star hotel.
03:18Various cities, including one of Europe's busiest ports, Barcelona,
03:22have moved to restrict cruise ships because of their emissions.
03:26Norway has also announced that from 2026 only vessels with zero emissions will be allowed to visit its fjords.
03:34This follows research that claims cruise liners in Europe emit as many toxic air pollutants as one billion cars.
03:42After Venice banned large cruise liners from anchoring in its historic center,
03:46it's reported that air pollutants fell by 80%.
03:50But hold on, shouldn't the move to using liquefied natural gas solve all of this?
03:55No carbon there, right?
03:57The easiest way to comply with the regulations on sulfur, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide intensity
04:06all at the same time is to use liquefied natural gas because it contains almost no sulfur
04:14and it emits about 25% less carbon dioxide emissions than conventional fuels.
04:21Brian Comer is not convinced about liquefied natural gas being used in the shipping sector.
04:26LNG is made of methane, a gas that doesn't stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide,
04:32but is 80 times more warming for our planet in the short term.
04:36And what's interesting about maritime companies using LNG is this.
04:41Many of them are choosing liquefied natural gas as their fuel
04:46and the engines that cruise ships use tend to be those that emit the most amount of unburned methane to the atmosphere
04:55and we call that methane slip.
04:57This infrared camera shows a ship burning LNG.
05:00The clouds you see show the methane that's escaping, the methane slip.
05:05The more methane, the bigger the cloud.
05:08The cruise ship industry emits about 30 million tons of greenhouse gases each year
05:14and that's the same as 75 natural gas powered power plants would emit each year.
05:21The future? Back to the question of what's powering this multi-billion dollar industry.
05:26Well, it's clearly demand. Just look at the size of Icon of the Seas.
05:30Yet it's run on LNG, a fossil fuel made up of methane, one of the drivers of global warming.
05:36But whatever fuels are being used, it's clear that they're in flux
05:40as the industry grapples with a warming planet and tries to color in between the lines.
05:45For the more formidable lines, however, those of our environment, we might already be over the edge.