Carnival Corp. reduced its carbon footprint by 29.1% in 2019, relative to a 2005 baseline, the company reported Wednesday, as it committed to a new goal of a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, relative to 2008.
Carnival said that the reduction is additional progress on top of reaching the original goal of a 25% reduction in carbon intensity in 2017, three years ahead of schedule.
The company's 10th annual sustainability report, titled "Sustainability From Ship to Shore," says that the commitment to reduce its carbon emissions by 40% aligns with International Maritime Organization (IMO) requirements and with the Paris Agreement. As of the end of 2019, Carnival said that 77% of its fleet was equipped with systems capable of removing nearly all sulfur from exhaust and enabling cleaner air emissions with no negative impact to the marine environment.
Carnival also achieved a 5.6% reduction in waste relative to 2016 and committed to a new food waste reduction goal of 10% across the fleet by the end of 2021. The company also committed to reducing all nonessential, single-use items and plastics onboard by 50% by the end of 2021. By the end of 2019, it said, it had reduced the sourcing of approximately 80 million plastic items and 95 million other single-use items, including straws, cups, lids, stir sticks, cocktail picks, toothpicks, butter foils and plastic shopping bags, which have since been eliminated or replaced with sustainable alternatives when possible.
The company surpassed its water efficiency goal by achieving an 8.7% reduction relative to 2010 and improved water efficiency by supplying 82% of its water needs from the ocean and purchasing only 18% of the water needed onboard ships at designated ports.
Carnival leads the industry in the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG), having late last year introduced the second LNG-powered ship in its fleet, Costa Cruises' Costa Smeralda, which joined the AIDAnova as the first cruise vessels in the world powered by LNG. LNG has a lower carbon emission profile, eliminates sulfur and significantly improves overall air emissions.
AIDA also signed an agreement with Corvus Energy, a marine battery supplier, for the production and installation of a first-of-its-kind lithium-ion battery storage system that can power a ship's propulsion and operation for limited periods of time.