PORT CANAVERAL — Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Disney and MSC Cruises may be competitors, but leaders from the cruise lines came together on board Royal’s newest cruise ship Utopia of the Seas this weekend to solve the collective problem of reducing carbon emissions.

Royal used the first shakedown sailing of Utopia of the Seas to bring together representatives from shipping and other maritime sectors to a Decarbonization Summit. The goal: to try and set the standards for how the industry will get to its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“We’re all locked in for 2 1/2 days. We can’t escape. We’re all going to be in here until the white smoke comes out,” said Bo Cerup-Simonsen, the CEO of Maersk McKinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, referencing the Catholic Church’s tradition for when a new pope is chosen.

He was part of the keynote address for the summit Friday ahead of a three-night cruise from Port Canaveral hosted by Royal Caribbean on board its ship that arrived to Port Canaveral this past Thursday, and is set to begin sailing with paying customers for the first time on Friday this week.

The 2050 goal for net-zero carbon emissions is one set forth by Cruise Line International Association, the lobbying group for most of the world’s major cruise lines.

“We’re all here for one main reason, which is to do what’s right for our society, do what’s right for our planet. I think that should hopefully all drive us each and every day, to make the planet better, and leave it better for future generations,” said Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty, who opened the summit.

But he also raised the specter of growing costs and the threat of limits coming online from the European Union, which has enacted regulations about carbon emissions that’s forcing the cruise lines, but also other ocean-goring interests like shipping to act.

“If you’re in the maritime space, you know, one of our key risks is making sure we always have the right to operate,” Liberty said. “And if we are not able to get to our net-zero position here I think within a very short period of time, that we can we can lose our right to operate, or limit our way to operate around the world.”

Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas arrives to Port Canaveral

One part of that action was built into Utopia of the Seas. The sixth Oasis-class ship for the line is the first in class to run on the the cleaner burning liquified natural gas (LNG), and one of only six LNG-fueled cruise ships currently sailing in North America. With Utopia, Port Canaveral hosts three of them including Carnival’s Mardi Gras that arrived in 2022 and the Disney Wish that debuted in 2023.

CLIA has forecast that 26 of more than 300 vessels under its umbrella will be LNG-powered by 2027, but it’s only lowering part of the emissions problem while also producing a methane byproduct that brings its own climate change concerns.

“We don’t think and I don’t think the industry thinks LNG is the ultimate solution by any stretch, but it’s the beginning of that journey for us,” Liberty said.

He noted Utopia of the Seas is 35% more efficient that the original Oasis of the Seas that debuted in 2009.

“That doesn’t just happen by singing some type of chant or song or wish. That comes from a tremendous amount of hard work,” he said.

The fuel is only one part of that process, with other shipwide features that try to save energy where they can. One example is how the elevators on the way down on board the ship generate electricity, and a system on board tracking energy usage that can help identify overuse.

“That didn’t take Oasis from 100 to zero, but it’s built to have the capabilities to go on that journey, especially as alternative fuels become available,” he said.

Liberty said getting voices from outside the cruise industry to help guide the path to net zero was important.

“It takes a city of the best minds and thinkers in the world in order to develop the technology, scale the technology and make it available, make it affordable for society, as well as for maritime, and then of course, as well as for cruise ships,” he said.

The cruise industry only accounts for 3% of all maritime traffic.

Cruise lines’ new leaders have net-zero challenge on their mind

“So to think that everyone in the world is just going to design for us, I think, would be irresponsible, and quite naive,” Liberty said. “But I think working together and identifying alternative fuels, finding the technology that can limit the amount of emissions, capturing carbon, fuel cells, etc, I think is an important journey that we all have to get on together.”

Looking beyond LNG is already in the works for many cruise lines. Royal Caribbean Group, which also runs Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises, is using its smallest vessels as guinea pigs to look into alternatives such as biofuels.

“The smaller the footprints are, it gives us an opportunity … so Silversea’s a little bit of that, kind of like laboratory for us to do that,” he said.

While alternative fuels such as green methanol and green hydrogen are all in the mix, a bigger issue for not just the cruise industry, but all of maritime is how it can be scaled up for mass use.

“Maritime not only requires that alternative fuel to be possible, but it’s got to be available,” Liberty said. “So if you’re producing green methanol, in let’s just say, in Spain, how do you get that to the Seychelles? Right? That will come over time, but the realities of it is, everything for the past 200, 250 years, it’s been designed around fossil fuels.”

And that leads to bringing on board the maritime support industry such as the shipyards and engine makers, some of whom had representatives at the conference. Liberty says, for instance, that engine manufacturers need consensus before investing.

“We’re now asking, ‘Hey, can you design it around green methanol?’ And they would say, ‘We can do that.’ But is the green methanol going to be available? Is green hydrogen going to be available? What’s going to be the energy source? Because they don’t want to invest in 10 different engines. They need to invest in a couple that they know is going to also have a financial return to them.”

So for now, cruise lines are building new vessels, which will be sailing for the next 30-35 years, with the capacity to take advantage of innovations as the come online.

New ships, for instance, are outfitted with the ability to plug into shore power at ports that have it available, such as the debut at PortMiami for limited use earlier this year. Ships are also adding fuel cell capacity so they can run on that energy as opposed to burning through fuel.

And if a better fuel than LNG becomes the industry standard, cruise lines are prepared to pivot to meet the 2050 goal.

“We keep industrywide rolling out new ships, and on those ships, we’re all trying to advance as far as possible, and create the highest level of flexibility, based off of what we know today, to take alternative fuels here into the future,” Liberty said.

And while the phrase “climate change” was not uttered on day one of the summit, there’s no argument among those attending about dealing with the industry’s carbon footprint.

“Everybody’s on board on how do you reduce emissions,” Liberty said. “So we don’t have to get into buzzwords or anything like that. What we have to focus on, is how do we improve our impact on the planet, and that’s not something that is political, or it’s not something that is something that has to be a kind of kumbaya kind of message. It’s because it’s the right thing to do.”