Cruise lines face an enormous challenge to decarbonise, but Royal Caribbean Group vice-president and environmental, social and governance (ESG) head Nick Rose insists the sector can reach ‘net zero’ by 2050.
Rose told Travel Weekly: “We have a focus on energy efficiency that helped us reduce our carbon emissions by 35% since 2015.” The next target is a double-digit reduction from the 2019 level by 2025.
He said: “It’s a continuing effort, taking incremental steps in reducing carbon, making investments, looking at the next energy source and at fuel sourcing. [But] we don’t want to get too far out in front to where we’re placing a bet [on a technology].
More: Interview: ‘Cruise can decarbonise but we need new technologies’
“Our plan for the immediate future is fuel flexibility. We have new liquified natural gas (LNG) ships being delivered. We announced the fifth [Celebrity] Edge-class vessel will be tri-fuel capable, and we’re looking at different fuels for the existing fleet in trials of biofuels.”
He argued: “Flexibility is important because the sheer amount of fuel required to sustain shipping is not going to be there whatever the fuel – LNG, biofuel or methanol.”
The group has some of the most up-to-date ships in its fleet and more on order. However, it still operates ships built in the 1990s.
Rose explained: “When a ship is 30 years old, it doesn’t fit what we’re doing. We’ve been good at retrofitting ships. We’re heavily involved in biofuel trials because biofuel would allow us to meet some of our carbon goals with a drop-in fuel.
“Some older ships will leave our fleet. Middle-aged ships will be retrofitted to use biofuels and new builds will use a mix of new fuels and new technologies.”
The progress Rose has seen since joining Royal Caribbean in 2005 has left him confident of reaching ‘net zero’ by 2050 without undue reliance on offsetting.
He said: “In less than 15 years we went from only burning heavy fuel oil to using abatement technologies that allowed us to meet the standards a cleaner fuel would meet and transitioning to LNG. The next 15 years can be more transformative. We don’t think carbon offsetting is going to be a significant part of this.”
But he suggested “part of the challenge” will be sticking to 2050 as the target date, arguing: “The more you compress the timeline, the more it can become a hinderance because people feel, ‘We have to make a decision tomorrow’. The only way to get to net zero by 2030 would be to use biofuels, and there are not enough sustainable biofuels to support that.”
Rose said: “I’m confident we’ll get there by 2050 even though the last 10 years of the path to 2050 isn’t clear.” But he added: “We need new technologies. We can probably get 50% to where we need to be with existing technologies. But to get the world to net zero, we need new technology.”
More: Interview: ‘Cruise can decarbonise but we need new technologies’