by Donald Wood
Last updated: 11:13 AM ET, Wed September 22, 2021
MSC Group's Cruise Division announced a new commitment to sustainability by pledging to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its cruise marine operation by 2050.
The MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys brands will develop and implement fuel and technology updates designed to exceed the International Maritime Organization's plan to reduce emissions from shipping by 50 percent by 2050.
MSC also signed Getting to Zero Coalition's Call to Action, which calls for companies to set a target for zero-emission shipping by 2050, deploy commercially viable zero-emission vessels by 2030 and work with the private and public sectors.
"As a family business with over three hundred years of maritime heritage, we have always felt a deep responsibility towards our marine environment and our planet," MSC Group Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said. "Today we are taking our commitment one step further by embracing a net-zero emissions future within the next three decades."
"We will achieve this by investing in and otherwise supporting the accelerated development and implementation of innovative, cutting-edge technologies to be deployed across our fleet, continuously raising the bar of environmental performance and leading our industry forward," Vago continued.
MSC also revealed it was taking part in several industry research projects seeking to develop the technologies and fuels that offer the potential to enable zero-emissions ships, including hydrogen-powered vessels, fuel cells on LNG-powered vessels, retrofitting fuel cell technology and low-carbon technologies and ship design.
In recent years, the cruise company has focused on reducing GHG emissions intensity through the introduction of energy efficiency and operational improvement measures across its fleet, reaching a 28 percent efficiency improvement in 2019 before the pandemic.
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