Ecological transition cruises: ships ready but ports late

The cruise transition runs faster on board than on the docks. 65% of ships are now equipped to use shore electricity while in port, but less than 3% of the world's ports have the necessary infrastructure. In absolute numbers, the equipped units have risen from 55 in 2018 to 193 in 2026, equal to 72.5% of the overall capacity, while the ports with at least one electrified quay are just 41.

Environmental Technologies and Practices 2026, the annual report of Clia, the main international association of the cruise industry, photographs the technological evolution of the sector. The analysis concerns 327 ships of the 45 associated companies, for approximately 692 thousand beds and over 95% of the world capacity. 72% of the fleet is made up of units with less than 3 thousand beds.

The distance between investments on board and the provision of port infrastructure emerges even more clearly when looking at the fleet's prospects. Based on the current order book, ships equipped for shore power supply will reach 279 in 2039, equivalent to 74% of units and 82% of capacity. In Europe, an acceleration will have to come from the "Fit for 55" package, which provides for the diffusion of OPS (Onshore power supply) in the main ports by 2030.

Electrification on the dock is just one of the fronts in which companies are investing. Another concerns propulsion: the ships equipped with multi-fuel engines, designed to use conventional fuels but also fuels with zero or almost zero emissions, were only one in 2018 and became 30 in 2026. The order backlog foresees 56 by 2030 and 69 by 2039, including the 39 units already scheduled for delivery.

At the same time, the mix of fuels used is changing. According to data from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) reported by CLIA, from 2019 to today the use of traditional fuel oil has decreased from 74.2% to 60.6%, while the share of LNG has increased from 0.3% to 6.9%.

Technological evolution is accompanied by a reduction in consumption and average emissions. Globally, IMO data shows an 11% drop in average CO2 emissions per cruise ship and a 10.6% drop in average fuel consumption. The contraction is more significant in Europe: according to the European Maritime Safety Agency, between 2018 and 2025 average consumption per ship fell by 18.5% and average CO2 emissions by 19.4%.

Investments also affect the control of other pollutants. The units equipped with selective catalytic reduction systems, used to reduce nitrogen oxides according to the IMO Tier III standard, increased from seven in 2018 to 96 in 2026, reaching 32.3% of the total.

A further area of ​​intervention concerns the management of on-board resources. 98.7% of ships produce fresh water independently and 218 are able to satisfy their entire needs without refueling in ports. The units equipped with advanced wastewater treatment systems increased from 136 in 2018 to 249. On the waste front, 137 ships use microbial digesters to reduce food waste, while seven are experimenting with "waste-to-energy" technologies, which allow waste to be transformed into energy for on-board operations.