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Responsible Travel CEO tells cruise lines to ‘get serious’ on eco impact
Responsible Travel founder and CEO Justin Francis is calling on the cruise industry to ‘get serious’ on environmental issues.
His call comes after a Channel 4 Dispatches programme called ‘Secrets of your Cruise’ exposed the impact of cruising on the environment.
"Last night’s edition of Dispatches found that particulate pollution on board is at the levels you would expect to find in some of the world’s most polluted cities," said Francis.
"Furthermore, maritime regulations allow cruise ships to dump raw sewage 12 miles out and allow cruise ships to produce 79,000 litres of sewage a day.
"With continual reports questioning cruise ships negative impacts, Responsible Travel believes the sector needs to plan a new future."
He is calling for:
– A safe future for passengers, where cruise ships must adhere to safe levels of air pollution and the rules for land and sea are the same.
– The industry working towards zero waste being discharged at sea, with waste either treated on board with Advanced Water Treatment systems (Channel 4 found only 50% of new ships built in the next 10 years will meet these standards), or taken back to land by the ship so as to be treated.
– License to operate, where cruise ships are granted licenses to operate by local Governments, who are accountable to residents. The license will only be granted after the local community have participated in defining ‘limits of acceptable change’ – a set of metrics that define unacceptable changes to local culture, nature and environments.
– Workers’ rights, where cruise lines comply with the Geneva Accord, which protects workers’ rights under an agreement under the International Labour Organisation. Despite becoming law in 2013 there are reports of non compliance. These issues were covered by Channel 4’s Dispatches – ‘Cruises Undercover: The Truth Below Deck’ in October 2012.
– Cruise ships partnering with local environmental and conservation organisations to fund work in destinations to mitigate against their impacts. If they are not willing to do this a tax should be introduced to ensure this funding is available.
"I think we’ve reached a tipping point where the cruise sector needs to get serious about change, or see its wings clipped by local residents, governments and marine and environmental regulators."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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