Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support ports wishing to offer onshore power connections to cruise line customers.

On 25 March, the government published the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy and a call for evidence on Net Zero Ports. This call for evidence focused on potential options to reduce emissions from vessels at berth and the future energy demand at ports, including the provision of shore power to customers, including cruise operators. We are considering the responses to the call for evidence.

In addition, research and development into the future fuels and technologies necessary to decarbonise the sector have been supported through the UK SHORE R&D programme, including projects such as Portsmouth’s shore power installation. This project will go live later this year, backed by nearly £20m of government funding, and will allow visiting cruise ships to connect.

The Government working closely with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator on fundamental reforms to the connections process that will release up to 500GW of capacity from the connections queue. This may enable quicker provision of shore power where capacity is released in port locations.