“Step in the wrong direction”: World's largest cruise ship concerns environmental experts

The world's largest cruise ship has left Miami and set sail for its maiden voyage on Saturday. But experts are sounding the alarm.

Though the “Icon of the Seas” is built to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) — which burns cleaner than traditional marine fuel —environmental groups say methane leakage from the ship's engines are a risk to the climate.

"It's a step in the wrong direction," said Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Program at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), adding that the luxury cruise liner will emit more greenhouse emissions than if it were running on common fuels used in present day.

The ship’s chief engineer Stig Eriksen, however, disagrees. “Sustainability is, important part of our journey to a destination net-zero in the future and LNG is one part of that step forward on that journey,” he said.

Methane is reportedly 80 times worse over 20 years than carbon dioxide, making cutting methane emissions vital to mitigating global warming.

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