How a Cruise Line Cut Emissions by 90% on a 12-Day Voyage
Photo Credit: The Norwegian shipping company Havila has shared details of how it completed a lower carbon 12-day cruise voyage. Havila
Skift Take
Havila Voyages has shown that low-emission cruising through Norway's fjords is technically possible. The harder question is whether the infrastructure to support it can keep pace.
Havila Voyages completed what may be the longest passenger voyage ever run on biogas — a 12-day trip along Norway's Bergen-to-Kirkenes coastal route that the company says cut emissions by 90% compared with conventional marine fuel.
The journey, completed in late 2025, is one of the strongest proof points yet that low-emission cruising is technically viable on smaller ships.
But scaling remains the problem. In total, Havila's four vessels would require about 0.3 terawatt hours of biogas annually. Norway's total production last year was 0.88 terawatt hours, according to the company. That means four ships on one route would consume roughly a third of the national supply.
"Scaling production is the key challenge," Lasse Vangstein, chief communications and sustainability officer at Havila Voyages, told Skift. "The biogas exists, but the infrastructure to produce it at scale is not there yet."
What Cruise Ships Typically BurnMany cruise
