Australia’s leading cruise operator Carnival Australia has announced a five year pathway for the introduction of new air quality technology for its local fleet of cruise ships.
In addition to meeting or exceeding existing environmental standards, the company, which carried nearly 600,000 Australians on cruise holidays last year, has committed to achieving low sulphur fuel emissions by 2020.
“We have already introduced exhaust gas cleaning technology in the Australian market with the recent arrival of our ship Carnival Legend, which is fitted with the technology,” said Ann Sherry, CEO of Carnival Australia, which accounts for seven iconic cruise brands
“One of the two ships being added to the P&O Cruises fleet next year also has the technology to reduce fuel emissions. A dry-dock program is in place to progressively add exhaust gas cleaning systems to other ships in the Carnival Australia fleet over the next five years.
“Our five year pathway to reduced fuel emissions puts Australia in the win-win position of benefiting from the economic surge of cruise industry growth while adding to environmental sustainability.
“While cruise ships might represent a relatively small proportion of Australian shipping as a whole, they carry many thousands of passengers and make a significant and growing economic contribution.”
According to the recently released annual study by Cruise Downunder, cruising generated total economic output of $3.16 billion in 2013-14 including direct expenditure of $1.85 billion. This was 15.8 per cent more than in the previous year when total estimated output was $2.73 million.
Sydney attracted the lion’s share of cruising-related economic activity accounting for $1.1 billion in spending by domestic and international passengers, crew, operators and corporate sector.
“No one is more pleased than we are by reports of Sydney Harbour becoming increasingly cleaner and we are pleased to be playing our part in its improvement,” Ms Sherry said.
“Our five year pathway to achieving low sulphur emissions is in line with the 2020 target set by the International Maritime Organisation to improve air quality in international shipping from which Australian ports will benefit.
“However, it must also be acknowledged that increasing air quality standards in Australia will depend in part on the availability of reliable supplies and quantity of low sulphur fuel.”
Ms Sherry said that in the meantime, Carnival Australia’s fleet operations would continue to comply with all existing environmental requirements in keeping with its commitment to environmental sustainability.
SOURCE Carnival Cruise Line