Costa Group to bolster net-zero targets with new decarbonisation department

June 16, 2022, by Fatima Bahtić

Cruise company Costa Group, a part of Carnival Corporation, has established a dedicated decarbonisation department within its Carnival Maritime unit based in Hamburg.

Illustration; Image courtesy: Carnival Corporation;

As informed, the newly established department will be responsible for developing and implementing the strategy for achieving the decarbonization ambitions of the Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises fleets by 2050.

Furthermore, the effort will have a strong focus on research and development, energy management and data analytics to develop the roadmap that will lead to zero-emission ship operations.

As a priority, the newly created department will work to further improve the environmental performance of the existing fleet, working in synergy with the Sustainability Departments of the Costa and AIDA brands.

Specifically, the unit will be studying and testing new technologies, such as batteries, fuel cells, solar and wind power, to accelerate their availability.

“Addressing climate change requires a great effort and commitment, and we believe that the creation of our new dedicated task force is a key asset to accelerate the development of new concepts that can lead us to reach carbon neutral operations by 2050”, said Michael Thamm, Group CEO, Costa Group and Carnival Asia.

“To meet this challenge, we intend to build collaborations and partnerships with other players in the value chain… We will also continue to work in close cooperation with governments to make sure that Europe can lead the way to sustainable cruising”.

The cruise company is currently also developing next-generation exhaust gas cleaning systems with its partners to achieve lower emission levels.

Over time, developments in the application of alternative fuels on a large scale, including biofuels (liquefied biogas and biodiesel), methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen fuels, will allow the ships to be flexible in the use of low-carbon energy.

Solutions are being designed to meet requirements for newbuild ships, as well as for the current fleet, for the capability to store and use new-generation fuels, the firm emphasized.

Over the years, Costa Group has been introducing new advanced technologies on board its existing and new ships.

The company adopted liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a propulsion for its vessels, with four ships being already in service in the Costa Group fleet. The ships were built by Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku.

Moreover, the majority of the ships in the fleet are equipped with shore power capabilities to be zero-emission in ports, where this technology is available.