Cruise shipping
Intent on sustained growth
peaking at the annual European Cruise Council conference in Brussels earlier this year, EC transport commissioner Siim Kallas highlighted a range of policy areas where, starting with the recently released white paper on transport, new regulation is under development that will have a significant impact on cruising.
S Siim Kallas
On the environmental side, the lead items were sulphur content of bunker fuels and greenhouse gas emissions from ships. Kallas stressed the importance of dialogue, noting that ‘the challenges and opportunities faced by the cruise sector coincide with the European agenda and the transport white paper’s objectives of less congestion, fewer emissions, more employment, growth, safety and security.’
In response, ECC vice chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said that the industry is intent on sustained growth and argued that while the cruise industry is committed to environmental sustainability – witness the increasingly innovative ships joining the fleet – it needs further help to cut emissions.
efficiency design index, and the alignment of the Sulphur Directive fully with Marpol Annex VI, he noted. The European Commission has said it will include a ‘safeguard clause’ in its new sulphur directive to address the possibility that sufficient quantities of the required low- sulphur fuel might not be available when the directive comes into force in 2015.
Soledad Blanco of the directorate for
sustainable resource management, industry and air at DG
Environment, said at the ECC meeting in May that ‘if the conditions are not met, there will be a derogation, no doubt, but I cannot talk about the exact wording.’
availability (or otherwise) of the low- sulphur fuel. Blanco responded only that the study would be completed by 2018, as anticipated.
Carnival UK chief executive David Dingle, meanwhile, said the cruise industry must expect eventually to be subject to a carbon tax along with the rest of the shipping industry. ‘We’re preparing. It’s a question of when rather than if,’ he said. Dingle told Seatrade: ‘the
industry’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy usage – through such measures as slow steaming,
streamlined hull forms and fuel efficiency measures – are evidence of its commitment to sustainable cruising. ‘But this is not going to
Michael Thamm Pierfrancesco Vago
Earlier Rob Ashdown, the ECC’s director for technical environmental and operational matters raised industry concerns that, given refiner reluctance to invest in producing the new low- sulphur fuel, it may not be available in sufficient volumes to serve the
industry’s needs when the directive comes into force.
‘If it is not available at every
This might come in the shape of adequate port reception facilities, IMO agreement on the swift and mandatory application of an energy
berth in every port, what is a shipowner to do?’ Ashdown asked. He also urged the EC to bring forward the study into the
go away,’ he said. AIDA Cruises president Michael Thamm added drily that,
‘$100 per barrel is a good inducement to control consumption.’ Over in the US, the Coast Guard and the US Environmental Protection Agency signed an agreement in late June to jointly enforce US and international air pollution requirements for vessels operating in domestic waters. The requirements establish limits on nitrogen oxide emissions and require the use of fuel with lower sulphur content. The most stringent requirements apply to ships operating within 200 nautical miles of the coast in the new North American Emission Control Area.
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