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Displaying items by tag: Mike Brownrigg

The UK's shipping industry has rejected the European Union's new emissions trading scheme, claiming it is unworkable in a global business.
The Guardian reports that campaigners have called for the inclusion of an emissions trading scheme as part of the EU's carbon reduction programme.
But Mike Brownrigg, director-general of the UK Chamber of Shipping, dismissed the idea as unworkable, claiming that ships would simply refuel at non-EU ports to avoid emissions quotas.
Brownrigg maintained that any solution must be "global - through the International Maritime Organisation - rather than regional".
He added that "we are just at the beginning of this discussion" - despite what The Guardian describes as "years of talks between shipping companies and governments over how to reduce emissions from the sector".
The Guardian has more on the story HERE.

The UK's shipping industry has rejected the European Union's new emissions trading scheme, claiming it is unworkable in a global business.

The Guardian reports that campaigners have called for the inclusion of an emissions trading scheme as part of the EU's carbon reduction programme.

But Mike Brownrigg, director-general of the UK Chamber of Shipping, dismissed the idea as unworkable, claiming that ships would simply refuel at non-EU ports to avoid emissions quotas.

Brownrigg maintained that any solution must be "global - through the International Maritime Organisation - rather than regional".

He added that "we are just at the beginning of this discussion" - despite what The Guardian describes as "years of talks between shipping companies and governments over how to reduce emissions from the sector".

The Guardian has more on the story HERE.

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).