"Mediterranean needs a single health protocol" / INTERVIEW

Cagliari - Valeria Mangiarotti, lawyer, has recently been vice-president of MedCruise, the association that brings together the cruise ports of the Mediterranean, under the new mandate of Aris Batsoulis. Not entirely a new entry, that of Mangiarotti, who had already held this position in the past, but the return to the role of Marketing Manager of the Port Network Authority of Sardinia was greeted by its President, Massimo Deiana, as a prize "both in the field of environmental policies of the maritime and port sector and in commercial relations with the main shipping groups."

But in the meantime your sector is at a standstill, what can ports do in a moment of this kind?
"A timid restart, with an enormous effort, must be reported here in Italy, with MSC and Costa who have resumed their travels since the end of the summer, after a very hard work linked to the formulation of health protocols. In this moment of rest, we are focusing on environmental issues, trying to understand how the cruise industry can have less impact in the coming years."

Companies in Italy are trying to prove that the cruise is a safe, virus-proof vacation. Experience replicable at a Mediterranean level?
"The answer is yes, and there is a commission within the association that is dealing with precisely this: the idea should be to try to arrive at a single protocol for the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, regardless of the state in which the ship lands. The Mediterranean is politically divided, but we are one of the few associations straddling three continents, and if we want four seas - in addition to the Mediterranean, also the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Atlantic Ocean."

Less impactful cruises: therefore we talk about electrification of the docks.
"From that point of view I must say that MedCruise has always raised some perplexities. The debate on this technology, which began to be talked about fifteen years ago, mainly concerns the possibility of creating infrastructures in ports that are able to support consumption up to 10 megawatts, which is the energy needs of cruise ships. larger moored a day in port. Different, it should be noted, is obviously to speak of consumption for ferries or freight ships, which have a lower energy requirement."

So what is worth betting on?
"I think it is mainly liquefied natural gas that provides the best answers. In the Mediterranean, a network of infrastructures is already being created, in which the last entry is La Spezia. But the projects underway are numerous and able to respond to the need to reduce ship emissions."

However, methane does not solve the problem of nitrogen emissions.
"But cut the sulfur ones. But beware, this is not the definitive technology, but today it is certainly the most easily achievable to make the industry even more sustainable. Our Environment Commission is also studying and supporting other technologies that can become future solutions: I am thinking of lithium batteries that accumulate energy during the journey and allow you to turn off the engines in port, and studies on the exploitation of hydrogen."