Why maiden voyage of world’s largest cruise ship is alarming many

The world’s largest cruise ship has set sail – and many are outraged. The Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas departed on its maiden voyage on Saturday from the Port of Miami in South Florida. The vessel, which was officially christened Tuesday with help from soccer legend Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates, will make a seven-day island-hopping voyage through the tropics. But what do we know about the ship? And why has its voyage turned controversial? Let’s take a closer look: What do we know about the ship? The ship, which is divided into eight neighbourhoods across 20 decks, can hold up to 7,600 passengers and 2,350 crew members. It is over 360 meters long and weighs in around 250,000 gross registered tons, as per Bloomberg. It has

• Six waterslides
• Seven swimming pools
• An ice-skating rink
• A theatre
• Over 40 restaurants, bars and lounges

Built over 900 days at a shipyard in Turku, Finland, the ship is a monument to enormity. Taller than the Eiffel Tower, the Icon will be taking the title of world’s largest from a Royal Caribbean stablemate, the slightly smaller Wonder of the Seas. It is powered by six dual-fuel engines, which can be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). “Icon of the Seas is the culmination of more than 50 years of dreaming, innovating and living our mission – to deliver the world’s best vacation experiences responsibly,” Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty said earlier this week. “She is the ultimate multigenerational family vacation, forever changing the status quo in family travel and fulfilling vacation dreams for all ages on board.” It also features a system — microwave-assisted pyrolysis — for converting waste to energy-producing gas, and a reverse osmosis system to provide nearly all the fresh water the ship needs, the company says.

Royal Caribbean says every kilowatt used on the Icon of the Seas “is scrutinised for energy efficiencies and emission reductions.”

The Icon was christened in style on Tuesday, when global soccer star Lionel Messi, now with the Inter Miami side, pushed a button to send a bottle of Champagne crashing against the ship’s bow. After leaving its Miami home base Saturday on its sold-out inaugural cruise — the company says ticket demand was “unprecedented” — the Icon will spend a week in the Caribbean before returning to Miami. While the Cruise Lines International Association says reduces sulphur and greenhouse gas emissions, not everyone is convinced. Why is its maiden voyage so controversial? Some are raising concerns about the potential environmental hazards. The ship is built to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which burns more cleanly than traditional marine fuel but poses greater risks for methane emissions. Rights groups are concerned about harmful methane leaking into the atmosphere. Bryan Comer, director of the International Council on Clean Transportation’s marine programme, told The Guardian the entire industry is “investing in false climate solutions”. “They are doubling down by calling LNG a green fuel when the engine is emitting 70 to 80 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions per trip than if it used regular marine fuel,” he said. “Icon has the largest LNG tanks ever installed in a ship. It is greenwashing.”

He told CNN, “Royal Caribbean’s decision to use LNG is their biggest climate blunder.”

Marcie Keever, of Friends of the Earth US, told the newspaper: “By building these megaships and using LNG, the cruise industry is moving in the wrong direction. “Larger ships require more infrastructure at ports, destroying reefs and ecosystems in order to accommodate them.” “It’s a step in the wrong direction,” Comer added. [caption id=“attachment_13666562” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The ship is built to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which burns more cleanly than traditional marine fuel but poses greater risks for methane emissions. AP[/caption] “We would estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits over 120 per cent more life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than marine gas oil,” he said. In terms of warming effects, methane is 80 times worse over 20 years than carbon dioxide, making cutting those emissions key to holding down global temperature warming. Cruise ships like Icon of the Seas use low-pressure, dual-fuel engines that leak methane into the atmosphere during the combustion process, known as “methane slip,” according to industry experts. There are two other engines used on bulk carriers or container ships that emit less methane but they are too tall to fit in a cruise ship. Other say that vacationers generate eight times more carbon on a cruise than they do on land. Comer told Bloomberg a person on a 2,000-kilometer cruise would be responsible for emitting 500 kilogrammes of CO2. Meanwhile, a person doing so on a round-trip flight and staying at a four-star hotel would emit just 235 kilogrammes. Taking a cruise generates “about double the amount of total greenhouse gas emissions” as flying, Comer told the outlet. Stella Bartolini Cavicchi, marine policy advisor at OceanMind, pointed out that “usually people fly to take a cruise.” Doing so results in “quite a carbon-intensive holiday,” she added.

EuroNews quoted Norway’s foreign minister Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister as saying that cruise ships “cause the world’s highest emissions per passenger and travel kilometre”.

That’s not all. As per _Bloomberg, c_ruise ships also emit black carbon. This element absorbs sunlight and traps heat on the ground. Black carbon in the Arctic can increase the rate of glaciers melting. Cavicchi told the outlet cruise ships make up six per cent of black carbon emissions, while comprising just one per cent of the global fleet. ‘24% more efficient’ But Royal Caribbean says its new ship is 24 per cent more efficient when it comes to carbon emissions than required by global shipping regulator the International Maritime Organization (IMO). LNG emits fewer greenhouse gases than very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) that powers most of the global shipping fleet, said Steve Esau, chief operating officer of Sea-LNG, an industry advocacy organisation. Cruise engines convert natural gas into power in a cylinder, where it is “important to make sure that all the natural gas is converted to energy,” said Juha Kytölä, director of R&D and Engineering at Wärtsilä, which developed the cruise ship’s engines. What is not converted can escape during the combustion process into the atmosphere, he said, adding that Wärtsilä’s natural gas engine technology emits 90 per cent less methane than it did 20 to 30 years ago. Cruise ship engines have an estimated methane slip of 6.4 per cent on average, according to 2024 research funded by the ICCT and other partners. The IMO assumes methane slip at 3.5 per cent. “Methane is coming under more scrutiny,” said Anna Barford, Canada shipping campaigner at Stand Earth, a nonprofit organization, noting that the IMO last summer said its efforts to cut greenhouse gases includes addressing methane emissions. Of the 54 ships on order from January 2024 to December 2028, 63 per cent are expected to be powered by LNG, according to the Cruise Line International Association.

Currently, about six per cent of the 300 cruise ships sailing are fuelled by LNG.

Newer cruise ships are being designed to run on traditional marine gas oil, LNG or alternatives like bio-LNG that only account for a fraction of US fuel consumption. Royal Caribbean will use different fuels as the market evolves, said Nick Rose, the company’s vice president of environmental, social, and governance. “LNG is one piece of our actual strategy,” he said. With inputs from agencies