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Displaying items by tag: Lowest CO2 per container

Following a successful implementation in selected countries, global container line Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is now extending its the MSC Carbon Neutral Programme to clients worldwide throughout 2020.

Since early 2019, MSC has partnered with leading global climate solutions provider South Pole to develop the MSC Carbon Neutral Programme, an initiative which it claims “complements MSC’s strategic approach to sustainability and massive investment in reducing emissions across its fleet”.

MSC said it was the first major shipping line in 2019 to offer an option to fully compensate the unavoidable carbon emissions caused by the transport of their cargo through supporting climate protection projects managed by South Pole. MSC highlighted that it recently completed the launch of the largest class of container ships which produce the lowest CO2 emissions per container carried by design – MSC’s Gülsün Class.

For much more LloydsLoadingList reports here. 

In addition to Afloat coverage of a European Commission first, a report on CO2 emissions from maritime transport - that estimates merchant ships added over 138 million tonnes to EU carbon emissions in 2018.

Afloat adds that the landlocked shipping giant based in Switzerland acquired ICG's Oscar Wilde, operated by Irish Ferries on their Rosslare-Cherbourg/ Roscoff (seasonal) routes. The sale of the 1987 cruiseferry involved a bareboat hire purchase agreement with MSC to their ferry subidiary Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) which renamed GNV Allegra under the Italian flag and operating a Genoa-Olbia (Sardinia) service. 

Irish Ferries had Oscar Wilde operate the Rosslare based routes to France until 2018 however in the following year the introduction albeit late of newbuild W.B.Yeats onto the Dublin-Cherbourg route considerably enhanced the service with the 'cruiseferry''s summer sailings.

This compared to 'economy' based year-round sailings served by Italian flagged ropax Epsilon which recently returned full time on the Dublin-Holyhead route. While WB Yeats concentrates on high-season sailings. 

Published in Ports & Shipping

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).