Sustainable Energy in the Greater Bay Area of China: lessons from the Cruise Industry

Abstract

Globalization, technological advancement and economic prosperity concertedly generate a significant demand for cruise. In a context of passenger transport, cruise is one of the key passenger modes to foster the regional economic growth and encourage the social mobility in a community. Recently, the development in Southern China and its emerging Greater Bay Area intends for the revitalization of high-end service innovation and boosting up its tourism development. However, the environmental impacts of the cruise shipping research are seriously overlooked. Cruise shipping activities are well recognized as one of the source of air pollution, but they impact the environment more broadly and the stakeholders often underestimated the associated costs and risks of cruising on the environment. International setting of cruising activity and the lack of policy support are still key barriers for the cruising industry to effectively implement renewable and green-energy strategies and sustainable management in general. In this chapter, we will try to estimate environmental impact of the different resources (i.e. energy, water and waste) used during cruising and explore what are the best practices to develop in order to move towards a greener cruising industries in particular in area of rapid development.