Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise company, today announced plans to increase installations of its industry-first exhaust gas cleaning technology to more than 70 vessels. The expansion, covering more than 70 percent of its entire fleet, represents an increase from the 32 ships announced in September 2013.
Carnival is investing as much as $400 million to design, build and install the ECO Exhaust Gas Cleaning (ECO-EGC) systems, being used for the first time in the restricted space found on cruise ships. The systems will enable Carnival to meet new air pollution regulations that place a cap on sulfur content of fuel oil at 0.1 percent.
The systems will also help the company meet its environmental sustainability goals, as well as mitigate escalating fuel costs, Carnival says.
The ECO-EGC systems, known for their ability to “scrub” exhaust from high-sulfur fuel, are scheduled to be installed over the next three years. The current installation schedule initially includes 22 Carnival Cruise Lines vessels, nine Holland America Line vessels, seven Princess Cruises vessels and three Cunard vessels. In addition to those 41 ships, two other Carnival Corporation brands, AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises, will also install the systems: 10 ships for AIDA Cruises and six ships for Costa Cruises.
Carnival says the remaining schedule of installations will be forthcoming. In addition, Carnival UK brand P&O Cruises is assessing how the systems can be most effective on its vessels under European Union environmental law.
This news follows last month’s announcement that Carnival will meet its goal to reduce its rate of greenhouse gas emissions from shipboard operations by 20 percent. The company has already reduced its emissions by more than 19 percent since 2005 and says it’s on track to meet its goal of 20 percent by 2015.