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Polar exploration: Smooth sailing, or a journey too far for consumer travel?

Specialist
Will Payne
17 April 2023

With the planet sinking deeper into climate crisis, the cruise industry – like aviation – is facing growing pressure to decarbonise and to evidence its commitment to operating sustainably and responsibly. 

Levels of Antarctic sea ice last year dropped to record lows

Last month, the UN issued a landmark climate report, one secretary general Antonio Guterres branded "a survival guide for humanity".

The message is clear – while we’re now unlikely to limit global warming to +1.5°C, there’s still time for us to embrace clean energy and the technologies with which to avoid catastrophe. But this is our last chance.

Nowhere have the effects been more evident than in polar regions after levels of Antarctic sea ice last year dropped to record lows, raising fresh questions about the cruise industry’s ambitions in polar regions.