Carnival Corporation has been ordered to prove it is adhering to environmental requirements before it can return its cruise ships to sea in the US.
The company has been slapped with an additional reporting requirement relating to past environmental charges against its subsidiary Princess Cruises which was convicted for discharging oily waste in 2016.
Last year, the company was forced to pay US federal prosecutors $28.6 million, after Carnival CEO Arnold Donald confessed the company had infringed probation terms from this conviction.
USA Today has reported that to get the required certification, the ship must meet certain criteria around maintaining and installing pollution prevention equipment, ensuring deck crew, tech teams and engineers are in place, developing and implementing new voyage and environmental planning software tools and assessing waste vendors.
The line must submit certification to the US government, the US Probation Office for the Southern District of Florida and the US Coast Guard 30 days before planning to resume sailing in US waters.
Carnival spokesperson Roger Frizzell told Travel Weekly the company will fully comply with the order as part of its larger compliance program.
“We have reduced our carbon footprint by more than 25 per cent to date and plan to reach a 40 per cent reduction by 2030, tied to our many environmental and compliance initiatives underway across all our brands,” Frizzel said.
“These efforts include the implementation of new green technologies, like LNG, as next-generation fuel cells and large storage battery systems, in addition to our efforts to dramatically reduce plastics and waste on our ships.”
Carnival has paused all Australian sailings until at least 8 February 2021. However, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the US has indicated its No Sail Order could be lifted as soon as 31 October.
Featured image source: iStock.com/photosvit
