UNOC – PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO SIGNS CHARTER ON SUSTAINABLE CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 2025 PROMOTED BY FRENCH GOVERNMENT

©Direction de la Communication / Stéphane Danna

The first Charter on Sustainable Cruising in the French Mediterranean was introduced by the French Government and the major international shipping companies in October 2022, with the aim of reducing cruise tourism’s environmental footprint by setting standards that go further than the regulations. The Charter sets out consistent and exacting standards for the French Mediterranean coast, which is heavily impacted by cruise tourism. Its voluntary nature, scope and the leadership of the French Government make the Charter unlike any other globally.

Building on this momentum, and to coincide with the United Nations Ocean Conference, the French Government was keen to strengthen these commitments and open up the Charter to new partners. The Principality of Monaco, which has long been a leader in this area, today joins the initiative as a partner state.

Following more than a year of negotiations with shipowners, the amended 2025 Charter reflects renewed ambition, featuring 20 new or strengthened commitments that will apply from 1 January 2026 in eight key areas: safeguarding biodiversity, conserving cetaceans, reducing discharge at sea, managing and recycling waste, mitigating noise and light pollution, reducing greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollutants, raising environmental awareness among passengers, and ensuring transparency and social and environmental responsibility.

The key changes in the 2025 Charter include:

• Obligation to connect to power sources on shore whenever possible, and for the duration of a stopover, to reduce atmospheric emissions.
• Requirement to use ships equipped with engines that meet the latest emission standards (Tier II minimum) for ships of longer than 250 metres making stopovers or dropping anchor in four heavily used ports with no electric hook-up option.
• Requirement to use selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems in these four ports for those ships which are equipped with them.

• Monitoring of atmospheric emissions during stopovers, with corrective measures to be implemented if alerted to do so by the port authorities, and emissions to be minimised from a distance of 3 miles during pollution peaks.
• Strengthened ban on use of open-loop scrubbers in territorial waters.
• Ban on discharge of untreated wastewater in the North-Western Mediterranean Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA).
• Introduction of voluntary measures to prevent collisions with large cetaceans in the PSSA and participation in reporting mechanisms put in place by the authorities.
• Reduction of waste and improved waste recycling in collaboration with the port authorities responsible for approving collection companies.
• Reduction of noise and light pollution, including through limiting announcements while berthed or at anchor and banning underwater lighting.
• Routine use of low-emission transport options on shore and when anchored, and during excursions, wherever possible.
• Planning of excursions in a way that reduces overcrowding of tourist locations and promotes the local economy in embarkation ports.
• Ban on taking on freshwater supplies in areas where there is a declared drought.

These measures, which are valid for the next five years, will apply in three zones: the port zone, territorial waters and the North-Western Mediterranean Particularly Sensitive Sea Area.

The revised 2025 Charter has already been adopted by more than 50% of ports of call in the French Mediterranean. These commitments will be subject to an annual assessment carried out by external auditors.

Ms Céline Caron-Dagioni, the Principality of Monaco’s Minister of Public Works, the Environment and Urban Development: “By joining the Charter on Sustainable Cruising in the Mediterranean today, the Principality of Monaco is formalising a commitment to which it in fact already adheres. Our rules are among the strictest in Europe, but we believe in a collective effort. We welcome France’s initiative in creating an exacting and unifying framework. This Charter establishes a common foundation that will certainly encourage the cruise industry to make progress, resulting in a quieter and better protected Mediterranean. We hope that other coastal nations will follow this path and boost this positive momentum.”

Mr Philippe Tabarot, Minister for Transport: “In 2022, by mobilising the major international shipping companies around a Charter on Sustainable Cruising in the French Mediterranean, France acted as a global catalyst for creating a more responsible model for cruise tourism. Today, as France hosts the United Nations Ocean Conference, we are embarking on a new step, strengthening the commitments and bringing new partners on board. The fact that the Principality of Monaco, which has long been committed to sustainable cruise tourism, has signed the Charter gives this initiative a new profile. We hope that other countries will now draw inspiration from this, so that together we can create a sustainable, global transformation of the cruise industry. By maintaining strong commitments, the Charter offers a practical and ambitious response to the concerns of elected local officials in coastal towns, who are seeking a balanced form of tourism that benefits their communities, while at the same time guaranteeing companies the conditions in which to operate their adapted activities.”

©Direction de la Communication / Stéphane Danna